The following two memorandums were given to the CCO by confidential sources. Â Posted below are two memorandums for you to read and draw your own conclusions if indeed the City of Evansville is experiencing current budget challenges. Â Our confidential sources also tell us that the Evansville Fire Department is also facing budget issues.
MEMORANDUM NUMBER # 1
DECEMBER 5, 2014
TO: ALL SWORN PERSONNEL
SUBJECT: VEHICLE ASSESSMENT FOR PERSONALLY ASSIGNED VEHICLES
Due to the continuing high costs to provide and maintain a take home / personally assigned police vehicle fleet for EPD Officers, the fuel assessment fee will increase beginning in January of 2015.
Every officer will complete and turn in a “Vehicle Assessment Formâ€, either denoting the authorization to have a fee deducted from their paycheck or noting that they do not have a personally assigned vehicle. The “Vehicle Assessment Form†can be found in the EPD Documents folder.
The “Vehicle Assessment Form†must be turned in by December 17, 2014 to either Captain Chandler or Captain Cox.
Each officer choosing to receive a take-home/personally assigned vehicle will sign a payroll deduction card that allows the Controller’s Office to deduct the fee from each paycheck.
The vehicle assessment fees are as follows:
$20.00 per paycheck ($520.00/annually) for those officers living within the Evansville city limits.
$38.00 per paycheck ($988.00) for those officers living outside of the city limits of Evansville.
Officers who choose not to sign the payroll deduction card or have not completed it by the deadline will forfeit the use of their personally assigned vehicle as a take-home vehicle.
This administration feels strongly in the value of the personally assigned vehicle policy. It is our hope that these changes will allow us to continue the personally assigned vehicle policy.
All officers are asked to implement wise fuel-saving practices, including not running vehicles when unoccupied (except K-9 vehicles) and no excessive idling of vehicles.
BY DIRECTION OF,
BILLY BOLIN,
CHIEF OF POLICE
MEMO NUMBER #2 From Capt. S Clark  Concerning Year Of the End Police Budget Issues.
Officers,
As most of you are aware we had to temporarily stop our oil changes and repairs at Muensterman’s due to end of year budget issues.  We now have money in place to begin necessary repairs on vehicles as mechanical issues occur. We ask that you still hold off on routine oil changes until January. If you have a mechanical issue, we definitely need to be made aware of them through work orders and we will fix as many of these issues as possible.
We fully anticipate being able to go back to normal vehicle operations and maintenance just after the first of the year.  Thanks to everyone for your patience while we get through the end of the year.
Capt. S. Cox
POSTED BY THE CITY COUNTY OBSERVER WITHOUT OPINON, BIAS OR EDITING
Copyright 2014 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Okay … Here comes the anti police comments.
No it’s not anti police comments it’s about responsibility for anyone that works for the city with a tight budget and who’s funded by the tax payers not some private company.
First let me say this. I don’t care if it’s police or another city agency there should be no such thing as taking home a city owned vehicle. People who are off work should drive their own personal vehicle and not a city owned vehicle. Next to personal cost the next major cost to the city is vehicles such as fire engines and police vehicles. These two departments are the major costs for the city. So if there is a place to start trimming cost it should start with these take home vehicles at the police dept.
With a tank of gasoline costing well over $40 for a 16 gallon take the prices to officers with take home cars is not coving even one fill up. $38 per pay check and I’m right the city pays twice a month or every two weeks. So that tells me that the officer is driving for a month back and forth to work ( some from as far as Northern Warrick County off of Zoar Church Road ) two times a day for each shift worked. From work to home and back. That’s eating up a lot more gas than they are paying for. Now if they lived within a very short distance from the Police Station that might make better sense. Maybe the city should require all police and firemen to live inside the city limits. I mean if the board members are required to meet this new standard then this requirement to live inside the city to work for the city should be applied to all staff that work for the city. No?
Beside we have a lot of city police cars sitting idle at someone’s home all over the place and not avaialbe to the policemen who are working the other shifts. And if everyone on the police force had a take home car the city would have to buy twice or three times as many police cars as before. I can’t see any city manager in their right mind allowing such a valuable resource as a police car to sit idly by not doing anything for 8 to 12 hours every day that the police man is off work and home with his take home car. That’s just crazy thinking. It’s thinking like this that making the city go broke. That’s making the city buy twice as many police cars as necessary just so the police can have the luxury of taking the extra police cars home to sit idle in their family’s driveway not doing anything at all. And don’t give me that bit about the police car sitting in a drive way deterring crime in the area. That’s BS and you know it. I’ve read about police cars like that being vandalized right in the driveway and guns stolen out of the police cars sitting in the family’s drive way. Everyone knows that the police car in the drive way means that the police man is off duty and probably sleeping after a long shift at work.
I’m not anti police I’m anti inefficient thinking and policies. Even if the police paid for all the extra gas they used to drive back and forth to and from work they still can’t really justify to the tax payers the extra costs of not having a police car doing patrols for half the time it could be patrolling. How many police cars are out of service at any one time and how is that effecting the crime rates. Come on guys lets put more police cars back on the streets where the belong and not sitting idle in a private home’s garage or out on the street at the private home. Lets face it these guys probably are married and also have a family car or two and these family cars are going to be the one’s sitting inside the garage not the City owned Police car. Again you are not often going to wake these guys up when they are off duty and have them come to work early. So they are not really in service when they are in bed now are they? This is what I call wasting city assets to the maximum.
Maybe the city should require all police and firemen to live inside the city limits.
Surely you can not be implying there are qualified people living within the city limits available for these jobs.
As for not driving vehicles all three shifts. My experience with vehicles being used that much requires a lot more maintenance an they wear out much faster with no resale value. plus the funk factor. even if the person before you was relatively clean the vehicle still smells like someone has been camping in it.
I think that putting such restrictions on residency for our first responders is a bridge too far, but I don’t think anyone living outside of Vanderburgh County should be allowed a take-home vehicle. The theory behind having officers take home cars is to increase the appearance of police presence in the community. Having an EPD car in a driveway in Warrick County does nothing for that purpose. In fact, it sends a bad message about Evansville.
Regarding oil changes, I remember a TV commercial regarding oil changes. It said that “you pay me now or pay me later.” I believe this delayed oil changes policy.
The other day I was downtown and noticed 20 to 25 police cars just sitting there. This appears to be a usual practice. How much of this non-use does it contribute to the substantial number of replacements ANNUALLY. Maybe Rusty could put some analytical skills to work.
I agree with you on those oil changes. Timely oil changes is the best insurance against a “failed engine”.
Disagree with the law enforcement cars sitting. Think of this. Those 20-25 cars are worked one 8 hour shift, say in nine years they hit 180,000 miles which we will use as a base to replace. Three shifts with that one car will put that replacement at “three years”. This will happen two more times in that nine year period, which will put you right back where we started with one person, one car, one shift average!
I don’t think you can really base anything on those two memos. Quite frankly, paying $520 or $988 for the privilege of driving a take-home car doesn’t seem excessive. I’d not complain if that was all my vehicle cost me every paycheck, that’s for sure!
And as for repairs, did they have more than usual this year? Only if you compare year to year can you tell. Maybe last year wasn’t bad and they didn’t budget enough for a more normal number of repairs.
Just my 2 cents …
Moveon,..
I agree with you for the city cops taking cars home that live in the county.
However,.. I think it’s very helpful and critical to allow officers to have take home cars that reside in the city limits. Those officers can respond to many calls that they are close to much more quickly than others!
I also feel that it detours crime in areas where the cars are!
I see a lot of City Fire vehicles in the county at homes,.. this needs to stop!
Pogo,.. I agree!! Even more so as “hard” as these cars run,.. they should at most be getting changed at 5,000 miles.
As to that, would it be cheaper if EPD/EFD did simple Maintenance in house?
Not sure about in house oil changes. Does anyone know what Muestermans charge for their oil changes? I’m sure it would likely be competitive in that market. One would have to know how many oil changes are needed per year for the entire fleet. Does the money save on labor from Muestermans oil change pay for that in house person to perform that work? A building, tools, auto lift, EPA regulation mandates is also need to be included.
Dang, I sound like IE on this one!
We are now paying for one cop to drive to Degonia Springs.
We give these cops a job where they can never be fired, free gas, discounts on everything, ability to moonlight for good money using taxpayer funded equipment, ability to kill anyone and say they felt threatened, good salaries, and supposedly respect. Then they still bitch about everything. Ain’t capitalism great? The ruling lords hire half the populace to kill the other half.
Instead of accepting free fast food at many area restaurants, perhaps the LEO’s should try stopping by Jiffy Lube ?
If truth be known, there is a good probability that their are many law enforcement officers that are just outside the city limits that actually live closer to one of their three districts headquarters then some of the ones living inside city limits that live on the fringes of that city!
Replace headquarters with precinct!
I heard it’s gotten so bad at City Hall . . .
Billin’ Ted is no longer allowed to charge for the portion of meetings he attends where he is asleep . . .
That’s great! Poor, poor Teddy-bear.
Wonder what Billin’ bills if he has a dream about Evansville? Important question because If he has a nightmare it might be 2 or 3x his normal fee.
I heard it’s gotten so bad at City Hall . . .
Russ Lloyd now has to pay out-of-pocket for his ‘Bank Reconciliation 101 ‘ class at U of E . . .
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