Jerry Brown struggles to get rid of state cars
Published: Friday, Jul. 8, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Gov. Jerry Brown said in January that he wanted to sell off half the state's passenger vehicle fleet, one of several highly symbolic measures Brown proposed to cut costs.On Thursday, the administration said it remains far short of that goal. The state has tagged for sale about 32 percent of the 5,500 passenger vehicles Brown proposed eliminating.
Brown also is finding it difficult to stop employees from taking home the cars they still have. State agencies have rescinded only about 600 of the 2,250 home-storage permits Brown sought to cull by executive order. The administration said the effort is continuing.
"There was definitely some resistance to that," Brown spokesman Gil Duran said. "Everybody thinks their cars are essential, so we're making it clear that there's going to be an objective criteria. … We don't have an end-date for this. This is going to be an ongoing search."
Brown's progress so far is indicative of the tendency of politicians to over-promise, stymied by bureaucracies that are more resistant than they might have expected, said Todd Dewett, a professor of management at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.
"People do this all the time in politics," he said. "Most people radically underestimate the strength of the status quo in bureaucracy."
The Democratic, third-term governor's fleet-reduction progress so far is expected to reduce spending by about $11 million annually in maintenance and other costs. Officials expected auctioning surplus cars to generate an additional $5 million.
The amount is minute in comparison to California's overall spending, but the effort – like Brown's ban on state purchases of knickknacks and his recall of thousands of state-issued cellphones – was highly popular. It served to demonstrate Brown's frugality during California's budget crisis.
Administration officials said they are still reviewing the state's fleet and will find more cars to sell. The state is paying a consultant, Mercury Associates Inc., $575,457 to help manage the effort.
"Significant progress has been made, but we are not done yet," Brown said in a release. "I'm not satisfied with purging just 3,800 vehicles – state departments can make deeper cuts. Every department must eliminate the unnecessary vehicles that waste taxpayer money. There is no excuse for an excessive state fleet."
Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the Department of General Services, said the 3,800 vehicles are those that were clearly unnecessary. He said officials are now reviewing vehicles whose necessity is "questionable." He said the department plans to finalize its fleet-reduction effort by August and to start auctioning cars this fall, likely in September. He said the state also will sell other equipment, perhaps including boats and airplanes.
"We expect, obviously, that the numbers are going to grow," he said.
A similar order in 2009 by Brown's predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, resulted in the sell-off of about 4,000 cars and light-duty trucks, resulting in $6.4 million in sales, the Department of General Services said.
Of the state's more than 50,000 vehicles, about 11,000 cars and trucks are used for purposes other than health and public safety, and Brown sought to sell about 5,500 of those vehicles.
Initially, Brown's office said Thursday that it was 70 percent of the way to that goal.
The figure, however, counted other "mobile assets," such as electric carts, trailers, dump trucks and other rolling equipment. Only about half of the the 3,800 vehicles Brown announced purging are passenger cars, officials said. The Governor's Office attributed the initial error to a miscommunication by the Department of General Services.
Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said Brown may be "fudging a little bit" and that the savings amounts to "budget dust."
But he said, "We'll take any degree of progress. At least it's heading in the right direction."
The largest fleet reductions reported Thursday were in the California Department of Transportation and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which eliminated 926 vehicles and 795 vehicles, respectively.
Brown reported in June that he had recalled 29,398 state-issued cellphones, a 44 percent reduction. He said he would reach his 50 percent goal by this month.
Brown also is finding it difficult to stop employees from taking home the cars they still have. State agencies have rescinded only about 600 of the 2,250 home-storage permits Brown sought to cull by executive order. The administration said the effort is continuing.
"There was definitely some resistance to that," Brown spokesman Gil Duran said. "Everybody thinks their cars are essential, so we're making it clear that there's going to be an objective criteria. … We don't have an end-date for this. This is going to be an ongoing search."
Brown's progress so far is indicative of the tendency of politicians to over-promise, stymied by bureaucracies that are more resistant than they might have expected, said Todd Dewett, a professor of management at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.
"People do this all the time in politics," he said. "Most people radically underestimate the strength of the status quo in bureaucracy."
The Democratic, third-term governor's fleet-reduction progress so far is expected to reduce spending by about $11 million annually in maintenance and other costs. Officials expected auctioning surplus cars to generate an additional $5 million.
The amount is minute in comparison to California's overall spending, but the effort – like Brown's ban on state purchases of knickknacks and his recall of thousands of state-issued cellphones – was highly popular. It served to demonstrate Brown's frugality during California's budget crisis.
Administration officials said they are still reviewing the state's fleet and will find more cars to sell. The state is paying a consultant, Mercury Associates Inc., $575,457 to help manage the effort.
"Significant progress has been made, but we are not done yet," Brown said in a release. "I'm not satisfied with purging just 3,800 vehicles – state departments can make deeper cuts. Every department must eliminate the unnecessary vehicles that waste taxpayer money. There is no excuse for an excessive state fleet."
Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the Department of General Services, said the 3,800 vehicles are those that were clearly unnecessary. He said officials are now reviewing vehicles whose necessity is "questionable." He said the department plans to finalize its fleet-reduction effort by August and to start auctioning cars this fall, likely in September. He said the state also will sell other equipment, perhaps including boats and airplanes.
"We expect, obviously, that the numbers are going to grow," he said.
A similar order in 2009 by Brown's predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, resulted in the sell-off of about 4,000 cars and light-duty trucks, resulting in $6.4 million in sales, the Department of General Services said.
Of the state's more than 50,000 vehicles, about 11,000 cars and trucks are used for purposes other than health and public safety, and Brown sought to sell about 5,500 of those vehicles.
Initially, Brown's office said Thursday that it was 70 percent of the way to that goal.
The figure, however, counted other "mobile assets," such as electric carts, trailers, dump trucks and other rolling equipment. Only about half of the the 3,800 vehicles Brown announced purging are passenger cars, officials said. The Governor's Office attributed the initial error to a miscommunication by the Department of General Services.
Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said Brown may be "fudging a little bit" and that the savings amounts to "budget dust."
But he said, "We'll take any degree of progress. At least it's heading in the right direction."
The largest fleet reductions reported Thursday were in the California Department of Transportation and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which eliminated 926 vehicles and 795 vehicles, respectively.
Brown reported in June that he had recalled 29,398 state-issued cellphones, a 44 percent reduction. He said he would reach his 50 percent goal by this month.
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