Abuse Of The System: State pulled car privileges for 191 employees in fiscal 2013

04/29/2014

The Public Regulation Commission’s chief of staff and a state deputy fire marshal recently lost their privileges to drive state vehicles for a few weeks, but they’re definitely not alone.

“Unfortunately, we have to suspend driving privileges fairly frequently,” said Ed Burckle, Cabinet secretary of the New Mexico General Services Department.

From July 1, 2013, to April 23, 2014, a total of 191 state employees had their government vehicle driving privileges temporarily suspended for various infractions, from driving with revoked licenses to drunken-driving arrests, according to information provided by the General Services Department, which oversees the state’s vehicle fleet.

Of the total, 43 Department of Health employees had their driving privileges suspended, 34 were Taxation and Revenue Department staff and 32 worked for the Human Services Department.

Many of the suspensions resulted from expired defensive driving certificates or failure to provide a current certificate during an audit. The certificate is good for four years after an employee completes a defensive driving class.

The Public Regulation Commission was among a dozen state agencies with fewer than three employees who temporarily lost the use of state vehicles. Chief of Staff Vincent Martinez and Deputy Fire Marshal Vernon Muller had to relinquish their state vehicle driving privileges until July 10 due to a March incident in which Muller gave Martinez’s son and his girlfriend a ride from Raton to Santa Fe without prior authorization. Martinez said he had asked the state to reconsider Muller’s suspension because he had asked Muller to give the couple a ride from their broken-down vehicle.

State policy allows an employee to ask permission to give rides in a state vehicle to unauthorized people, but only for “the furtherance of state business.” State employees can provide a ride in a state vehicle to protect someone’s health and safety, but only to the nearest public place where they can seek further assistance.

Muller’s appeal is under consideration by the Transportation Services Division.

When state employees don’t follow state driving rules, it puts the state at risk, Burckle said. If an infraction causes an accident, taxpayers end up footing the bill.

The infractions that have lead to suspended driving privileges often caused accidents, said Tim Korte, General Services Department spokesman. “In fact, the violations are often reported to the Transportation Services Division after the accident occurs,” Korte said via email. “[State] rules require employees to file an accident report within 24 hours.”

In the last 10 months, the Transportation Services Division has received 854 reports of state employees breaking a driving rule. Most reports did not result in suspension of driving privileges.

Of the reports, many of which were made anonymously on the division’s tip line, 245 were reports of employees speeding, 50 were for employees using cellphones while driving and 28 were for texting while driving. Another 40 were called in for driving aggressively, and 21 were for failure to use turn signals. Another 60 employees were reported for reckless driving.

Each state agency is responsible for appointing a vehicle manager to maintain driving logs, enforce the rules and serve as a liaison to the state Transportation Services Division, Korte said.

State employee driving logs list who took each car on what dates, as well as the destination, the mileage, the date returned and if the gas tank was topped off, Korte said.

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