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Fewer deputies to drive marked cars home
| Wednesday, Jul 2 2008 5:37 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Jul 3 2008 3:14 PM
More Kern County sheriff’s deputies will drive their personal vehicles to and from work starting July 12 to save the county money.
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The move has some deputies more than a little frustrated.
Sheriff Donny Youngblood dropped the miles deputies can drive their marked patrol vehicles between work and home from 60 miles to 40 miles, it was announced Wednesday.
It means 20 to 25 more deputies will have to drive their own car to work and pay for the gas themselves.
Youngblood said he expects the change in mileage standards to save the county $200,000 a year.
“I realize this is not a popular decision for the sheriff. Believe me. But it’s the right thing to do,” Youngblood said.
Deputy Tim Bales, a nearly 19-year veteran who lives in Rosedale and drives to Frazier Park in his assigned patrol car, said it will cost him about $7,500 a year.
He said he doesn’t really care about the money.
“Charge me for my gas. I’m not looking to avoid paying,” Bales said. “Let’s deal with some compromises.”
There is a big public safety benefit, he said, to having a deputy in a patrol car on the road — even if he’s just driving to work.
“He’s had many times where he’s stopped to help people, to help with accidents,” said his wife, Dina Bales.
Youngblood agrees that more patrol vehicles on the street have a public safety value.
But his job, he said, is to balance that against the need to keep as many deputies on the street during a bad budget year.
“That program was established at $1.50 a gallon (for gas) — not $4 a gallon.”
At $4 a gallon for gas, the program starts looking more like a perk for deputies and less like a public service, Youngblood said.
“This is not a perk. The (personal patrol vehicle) program is for the benefit for the county,” he said.
The Sheriff’s Department, Youngblood said, is the biggest spender of county general fund money.
All county departments have been directed to cut the amount of general fund cash they spend by 20 percent in the budget that will be released Thursday.
This and other changes — such as pushing for deputies to fill their tanks with cheaper gas at sheriff stations rather than the corner gas station — are designed to help the Sheriff’s Department avoid the need to cut staff.
Youngblood is also reducing the number of unmarked “home retention” vehicles that administrators and detectives are allowed to drive home by around 50.
Bales said he understands that the sheriff has to make tough budget decisions.
But deputies were asked for suggestions about how to save money.
He offered up a few such as allowing the Frazier Park deputies to park their patrol cars halfway between home and work — in Lamont — and split the difference in cost with the county.
Bales said he’s frustrated because it doesn’t seem his suggestions got much traction.
The city of Bakersfield, which also lets officers drive patrol vehicles home, is not changing that program.
California Highway Patrol officers aren’t allowed to take their patrol vehicles home. But administrators can drive state cars to and from work as long as they live within 90 miles of their job, said Tom Marshall, spokesman for the agency’s Sacramento office.
— Staff writer Jorge Barrientos contributed to this report.