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City may cut car perk
By LAUREN STANFORTH Staff Writer
Published: 10:09 p.m., Wednesday, October 13, 2010

SCHENECTADY -- The City Council has been quietly gathering information on vehicles provided to municipal employees -- and if reducing them could avert controversial cuts in next year's budget like those proposed for the parks and fire departments.

A list provided to the Times Union by Councilwoman Barbara Blanchard shows 36 vehicles issued to city employees for round-the-clock use. It's not surprising that vehicles go to such top officials as Fire Chief Robert Farstad, Police Chief Mark Chaires and Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett, as well as Mayor Brian U. Stratton. But the need for others to get take-home vehicles, like the city's senior tree trimmer and the water treatment plant supervisor, is up for debate with the city trying to close a $6 million deficit.

"Considering the situation we're in, this is an insult to the taxpayers that people are driving these cars home," said Blanchard, who requested the information a few months ago from the city's law department. She said they can drive their own car to work and use a maintenance vehicle on the job.

No one knows yet how much it costs for each vehicle. In response to Blanchard's request, the finance department is calculating how many miles each employee with a city vehicle drives to and from home each day, and what maintenance is done on it.....................>>>>..................>>>>...................http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/City-may-cut-car-perk-705715.php

They clearly stole this one right out of Zollinger's play book!!! Zollinger has been saying this for years!!!!

They should be walking.....they built downtown for PEDESTRIANS......and are promoting foot-traffic.....

  Bravo BA-BA! Everyone is reading these blogs. This is a total outrage. 36 city vehicles being taken home every night for personal reasons, some garaged in Saratoga and Warren Counties. Next look at cell phone and nonprofit abuse. $5 MILLION wasted to move Bethesda House to Vale. $2 MILLION on the useless DSIC.

     What do we need the DSIC for? Let Metrograft disperse the facade money without "administrative fees". Cut the pork-save the fire fighters. Too many abandoned wooden homes in the City. And more if Mayor SOS and the rubber stamps don't find more serious cuts.

The taking home of vehicles for these water main people, or parks people, etc, really, there's no need whatsoever, the can drive their own cars and get mileage if necessary.

THe police and fire, yeah, I can understand the chief of each perhaps.  Even the volunteer fire chiefs have cars at home.  The siren issue can be an issue.  HOWEVER, that said, no one asked, Seber as in the story, to live outside the city, in another county to boot!

While it's no big deal if every little typist or laborer doesn't live in the city, they don't have any power, but these higher level management and adminisrators should be told they have X number of months to move into the city or be terminated.  Now, admitedly, they have houses, well, assuming they own the house outside the city, it probably would be too much to have them buy a house or rent in the city and pay two mortgages while a house outside the city is on the market, but something needs to be done asap.

I think I read somewhere, and I tend to agree, that people like code enforcement should use city vehicles because they tend to go into the more dangerous neighborhoods and by the nature of their work their cars could be damaged and be so enough times that their auto insurance company might terminate them and then they could be uninsurable.

Like I said.....this was Zollingers brain child for years!! And when is the legal date for this budget to be signed and sealed?AFTER the elections? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I thought it's November 1.

Quoted from mikechristine1

I thought it's November 1.

I thought it was after election day. We'll have to google it, or maybe someone else here knows.

Has to be passed by 11/1

Go Blanchard. I noticed something about Blanchard the past few months she is speaking up more and more.  

Blanchard is the whistle blower on the fact the City Garage Body Shop manager does not live in the county. She confronted the council and Mayor live at the CC Causus on TV.  She wouldn't stop asking where the man lived till she got an answer.  Interesting....

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SCHENECTADY
Council eyes trash fee, limits on city cars
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    The City Council may add another $20 to the garbage fee to restore some parks maintenance staff, adding to the list of cost increases facing taxpayers in January.
    The council may also cut one of the four assistant police chiefs and put new limits on workers who are allowed to drive city cars home.
    Neither of the ideas thrilled Assistant Chief Michael Seber, who had to listen while the council discussed laying off one of his staffers, taking away his city car and even eliminating one assistant chief’s job altogether.
    “I’m sorry I’ve being defensive,” he said repeatedly as he defended his job and his car.
    Council members are investigating the cost savings of eliminating one chief position. It’s not yet clear how much it would save.
    Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said the assistant chief would likely bump down to captain, setting off a chain reaction in the force that would eventually push one administrator back into the unionized force.
    Each bumped offi cer might get to keep his current salary, too, minimizing the possible savings. Bennett is looking into it.
    Even if the city keeps all four assistant chiefs, Councilwoman Barbara Blanchard made it clear she wants to strip all administrators of their cars. She noted that Seber, like many in the Police Department, doesn’t live in the city. He drives home to Burnt Hills every night.
    “A lot of your officers drive their cars home. We want to end that,” Blanchard told Seber.
When Seber defended the practice, Councilman Carl Erikson explained that the city is essentially paying the costs for each worker to commute.
“The farther away an employee lives, the more it costs us,” he said.
Seber told them that he’d lived in the city for 18 years.
“I raised my kids here. People forget that. That never seems to count for anything. I moved out of the city for my own reasons, personal reasons,” he said.
He insisted that he and others — including the K-9 officer and the evidence technicians — occasionally need to rush from home with police equipment, using lights and sirens. .................>>>>.....................>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01101&AppName=1

Finally someone speaks up...

GO BA-BA GO! Eliminate Wane Bennett's position that will save a vehicle and $300,000 in salary and benes. Start examining nonprofit giveaways. DSIC needs to go bye-bye. That will help Downtown merchants add employees and enlarge their businesses, creating more property tax revenue. Thank you Ba-Ba for standing up to this spending orgy. Curb the curb tax and keep the Bellevue firehouse open. Has the Mayor's vehicle been repoed?

     Code enforcers do not need a taxpayer car to commute from outside the County. Enforce the residency laws. Now they can't find a body shop man from the City? Call Vince Riggi.

Why did it take soooooo long for Ba Ba to speak up so vocally? Or has she seen how outspoken and factual Zollinger is and how Zollinger is gaining support? Or did the daily rag just need to fill some space?

The big garage and the body shop crack me up, but make me cry too.