Searcy's Vehicle Fleet

Under fire from the Arkansas GOP and private citizens, Governor Mike Beebe and other Arkansas officials and employees have been criticized this year for a general failure to properly document the use of government vehicles (and in cases like Mark Wilcox, willfully misusing public vehicles). As a result of this scrutiny, Governor Beebe has pushed for the assembly of the "largest and most comprehensive collection of Arkansas state-vehicle information ever assembled." In addition, he has issued an executive order that "creates specific classifications detailing which employees will be assigned state vehicles, and vacates previous commuter exemptions." He hopes these measures will help "determine the proper use of state vehicles."

After all this work, what would our Governor's reaction be to learn his home town's city government also has some record-keeping deficiencies with its own vehicle fleet? As reported in an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article on July 25, 2010 (full article available here), the state's bookkeeping for over 8000 vehicles is a daunting task to tackle. On the other hand, Searcy has far fewer vehicles to track, and the city should have an easier time keeping good records on them.

Searcy keeps a list of its vehicles by department. However, the city does not have records on the license plate numbers or a list of what city employee has each vehicle. In an email from City Clerk Peggy Meads to a Searcy resident, she says vehicle "Assignments are made to Departments, with the Department Head having discretion over specific use of the vehicle." This decentralized system poses numerous questions about the accountability of our city government. Some obvious questions include:

• Without more detailed records, how does the city manage license plate renewals?
• How are department heads held accountable for the condition and lifespan of each vehicle?
• How do our elected officials ensure the vehicles are being used in accordance with state law?