TrentonCarsAWOL

Hey There – We’ve been talking about the City’s Auto Fleet for a while – how many employees have them who probably have no need; how the City continues to refuse to comply with a law requiring frequent disclosure of this kind of information; and, recently, how fast they can be driven – Answer: pretty damned fast, which at least proves they are being decently maintained!

I have an idea for some Citizen Interaction that may help improve the situation with our runaway (so to speak!) auto fleet.

This past Tuesday at City Council, a number of citizens, including Mill Hill’s Jim Carlucci, publicly requested that the City quickly and fully comply with the terms of our local law – Ordinance 10-07 for those scoring at home! – and let the citizens of Trenton know who is driving away our tax dollars. The news of the last several days about the traffic stop and multiple citations given to Chief of Staff Paul Sigmund has focused attention on several new questions on this subject: mainly, how closely – or not – those responsible for assigning vehicles are looking at the driving records and license status of those individuals getting city rides. Mr. Sigmund’s Sunday traffic stop demonstrates that we either have serious deficiencies with our vehicle sign-out policies, or that those policies are not being followed. Either instance is bad news for Trentonians worried about vehicle operator safety, liability, or just the basic expense of providing taxpayer-owned rolling stock to unqualified and undeserving employees.

All this attention doesn’t seem to be making much of an impact on our Administration. This morning, I received an email from Mr. Carlucci, with photos attached of one city-owned vehicle, parked outside a private Mill Hill residence just this morning:

The driver, our City Attorney Marc McKithen, lives a few short blocks from City Hall. Why does he need to drive back and forth in a City vehicle? Or, if he doesn’t need to, why can’t he leave the car at City Hall, and free up some valuable parking space in Mill Hill?

So, this gets me to thinking: why don’t we all try to keep some records of how OUR City-owned cars are being used on personal time – evenings, weekends, holidays – and being parked at personal residences, shopping centers, health clubs, etc.

Most of us have cell phones and smartphones with pretty decent cameras. Why don’t we start taking photos of our cars, and post them as we see them?

Look for vehicles with plates beginning with “MG” – for “Municipal Government.”

I have a list of city vehicles with license plates, to crosscheck which vehicles are Trenton’s. I’ll post the dates and times and general locations where they are spotted. I won’t post home addresses, just general street locations.Let me know if you’d like me to post your names, or if you’d like anonymity.

Mail your photos to:

TrentonCarsAWOL@kevin-moriarty.com

Let’s see whether some unwanted publicity gets some results where words and speeches haven’t.

One Picture is worth a Thousand Words, they say. How much will dozens of pictures be worth?