EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a three-part series related to take-home vehicles at area cities, school districts, universities and Denton County. A link to the first part of the series is available within this story at www.dentonrc.com . A third part is scheduled to appear Sunday and includes information about who is allowed take-home vehicles and how far they commute.

Every day, hundreds of workers throughout Denton County leave their government jobs and drive home in taxpayer-funded cars and trucks.

Rules governing those trips can vary widely, and many aren’t bound by a formal policy, according to a Denton Record-Chronicle analysis of 35 area cities, schools, universities and other public entities.

Of the 25 area governments that let workers take cars and trucks home, less than half have formal written policies governing how the vehicles are used and who gets to drive them. Eight entities reported no workers taking vehicles home, and two cities — Double Oak and Krugerville — have not yet provided the requested information.

School districts and smaller cities were more likely to lack formal rules. But those without policies say that doesn’t mean anything goes.

“A clear verbal agreement about the use of the vehicle has been conveyed to the employee,” Bruce Yeager, superintendent of Ponder schools, said in a written response. “The guidelines are: use only on school-related activities and travel to and from home.”

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Many public employees have access to take-home vehicles such as these Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors parked last week in a Denton city lot.

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Government officials say letting workers take vehicles home improves emergency response times and, in the case of law enforcement, boosts the presence of police in the community. Most area workers with take-home vehicles are on call to respond to crimes, fires, power outages, water main breaks or other emergencies, according to the Record-Chronicle’s analysis.

But taking vehicles home also means higher maintenance and fuel costs and the potential for abuse, making the issue one with budget and political implications.

“You need to prove to the public and the elected officials that this is a justified reason for taking this vehicle home,” said Drew Corn, the town administrator for Northlake, which has a formal take-home vehicle policy. “So it’s a balance between those two concerns — public safety and the proper use of taxpayers’ resources.”

Preventing abuse

Governments often pass rules after scandals arise.

A December story in the Fort Wayne, Ind., Journal Gazette related that the Fort Wayne city government eliminated 43 take-home vehicles, for a savings of $400,000, after an investigation by the paper revealed the city had no governing policy and no way to determine how they were being used or if they were cost-effective.

Across the U.S., tax-funded agencies mostly agree with the use of take-home vehicles for police officers and firefighters because of the need for quick response to emergencies that require more personnel than available on duty to solve the problem, according to newspaper articles printed in the past few years. Most cities agree to a lesser degree on the need for utility workers to have take-home vehicles for similar reasons.

But when it comes to take-home vehicles as perks for elected officials, department heads and even secretaries, the water gets deeper. And newspaper investigations found gross noncompliance with policies, disagreement over what the policies meant or no policies at all.

Closer to home, Denton County commissioners beefed up the county’s take-home vehicle policy in 2003 amid a rash of problems, including word that an employee was taking his work vehicle out with his boat on weekends to Ray Roberts Lake, said Frank Phillips, the county’s director of administration.

Also that year, then-constable Larry Floyd faced questions over why a deputy who lived outside the county was driving a vehicle home. Policy at the time required workers with take-home vehicles to live inside the county, but opinions differed over whether the policy applied to employees who worked for elected officials.

“There were some incidents occurring with some employees who no longer work for the county who were utilizing the vehicles in ways we didn’t think were in the best interest of the county,” said Phillips, who could not recall the names of the workers involved. “And the policy at the time really didn’t have sufficient language that we could [use to] rectify the problems.”

Differing standards

Denton County was among the 11 public entities in the Record-Chronicle’s analysis that had formal written policies for take-home vehicles. Others were the University of North Texas and the cities of Argyle, Bartonville, Corinth, Denton, Justin, Krum, Northlake, Oak Point and Pilot Point.

Some policies share common standards — the language in city policies for Denton, Corinth and Northlake are identical in spots — but describing a typical policy can be tough.

Neither the Texas Municipal League nor the Texas Association of School Boards offers sample policies for take-home vehicles, and neither group keeps records of local policies.

The school boards association offers guidelines for non-school use of vehicles, spokeswoman Barbara Williams said. However, school districts can develop their own local rules regarding take-home vehicles, causing them to vary district by district, she said.

Of the eight school districts the Record-Chronicle requested information from, none had formal policies for take-home vehicles. Included in that category were Argyle, Aubrey, Krum, Lake Dallas, Pilot Point, Ponder and Sanger. Denton does not allow workers to drive district vehicles home overnight, Superintendent Ray Braswell said.

In all, 14 entities had no formal policy for cars and trucks that their employees take home. Those included Texas Woman’s University, Emergency Services District No. 1 and the cities of Aubrey, Hickory Creek, Lake Dallas, Ponder and Sanger.

Sanger City Manager Mike Brice said that although the city does not have a formal policy, he requires Sanger police officers to live inside the city limits before they can take a car home.

Other entities reporting no take-home vehicles were North Central Texas College, the Denton County Transportation Authority and the cities of Copper Canyon, Corral City, Cross Roads, Dish and Shady Shores.

The analysis did not include workers with car allowances or those repaid for work-related use of their personal vehicles.

Common themes

Formal written policies in the area share some basic traits, including standards for who is eligible for a take-home vehicle (generally on-call and emergency workers) and how a vehicle is assigned. Some organizations, including UNT and the city of Denton, have separate policies for police and other vehicles.

The policies limit the use of government vehicles to work-related uses, but some allow exceptions.

In Denton, for example, city workers can make “reasonable, brief and limited stops” during commutes for personal errands, including buying a “limited” number of groceries, picking up dry cleaning or making bank transactions.

Policies in Argyle, Corinth, Northlake, Pilot Point, Denton County and UNT share the same or similar exceptions.

Some policies require drivers of take-home vehicles to live in a particular city or within a set distance of their workplace. Others lack any residency requirements or allow a supervisor or governing body to waive them.

Denton County allows commutes of up to 43 miles in take-home vehicles.

Phillips, who helped draft the standard in 2003, explained: “Corner to corner, the longest distance across the county, as the crow flies, is approximately 43 miles.”

Several policies call for supervisors to periodically review how workers are using their take-home vehicles. The cities of Denton and Krum even mandate annual reviews for nonpolice vehicles.

Denton added the annual review as part of a policy update in January as a way of making sure each take-home vehicle is justified and that insurance information is up-to-date, city officials said.

“We want to ensure that we have the proper procedures in place to allow the employees who have a business necessity for a take-home vehicle to have that vehicle” while providing oversight to prevent waste or abuse, said Scott Payne, the city’s risk manager. “We believe at this time that we put in reasonable safeguards to track that kind of stuff.”

Staff writers Donna Fielder, Britney Tabor, Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe, Bj Lewis and Candace Carlisle contributed to this report.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com .

Here is a look at the number of take-home vehicles and a breakdown by department for area towns, school districts, universities and Denton County. Also included are recent populations.

ARGYLE

Population: 3,250

City vehicles: 4

• Public works, 1

• Police, 3

School district vehicles: 1

•Director of maintenance

and transportation, 1

AUBREY

Population: 2,500

City vehicles: 6

•Police, 6

School district vehicles: 2

•Maintenance, 1

•Agriculture teacher, 1

BARTONVILLE

Population: 1,350

City vehicles: 1

•Police, 1

CORINTH

Population: 19,650

City vehicles: 18

•Public works, 3

•Fire, 3

•Police, 12

DENTON

Population: 106,050

City vehicles: 92

•Drainage, 2

•Water administration, 1

•Traffic, 1

•Composting, 1

•Waste water collection, 1

•Water district, 1

•Water metering, 1

•Solid waste, 6

•Facilities management, 1

•Municipal electric, 8

•Safety administration, 3

•Police, 58

•Fire, 8

School district vehicles: 0

HICKORY CREEK

Population: 3,750

City vehicles: 3

•Police, 2

•Public works, 1

JUSTIN

Population: 3,100

City vehicles: 7

•Public works, 5

•Police, 2

KRUM

Population: 3,800

City vehicles: 10

•Public works, 1

•Fire, 1

•Police, 8

School district vehicles: 2

•Agriculture teacher, 1

•Director of maintenance

and transportation, 1

LAKE DALLAS

Population: 7,000

City vehicles: 4

•Police, 4

School district vehicles: 1

•Maintenance supervisor, 1

NORTHLAKE

Population: 1,450

City vehicles: 2

•Public works, 1

•Police, 1

OAK POINT

Population: 2,500

City vehicles: 1

•Police, 1

PILOT POINT

Population: 4,000

City vehicles: 11

•Police, 6

•Public works, 3

•Fire, 2

School district vehicles: 1

•Agriculture teacher, 1

PONDER

Population: 507

City vehicles: 2

•Public works, 1

•Police, 1

School district vehicles: 1

•Agriculture teacher, 1

SANGER

Population: 6,700

City vehicles: 16

•Police, 8

•Fire, 2

•Water, 4

•Electric, 2

School district vehicles: 3

•HVAC and electricity department, 1

•Custodial director, 1

•Maintenance director, 1

UNIVERSITIES

University of North Texas: 35

•Athletics, 15

•Facilities, 3

•Housing, 4

•Office of the president, 1

•Risk management, 2

•Universities Center of Dallas, 1

•Police, 9

Texas Woman’s University: 5

•Facilities, vice president of facilities management, 1

•Chancellor, 1

•Police, 3

DENTON COUNTY

Population: 614,650

County vehicles: 190

•Constable, Precinct 1, 7

•Constable, Precinct 2, 7*

•Constable, Precinct 3, 7*

•Constable, Precinct 4, 7

•Constable, Precinct 5, 5

•Constable, Precinct 6, 7*

•Engineering, 2*

•Road and Bridge East, 5*

•Road and Bridge West, 5

•Vehicle maintenance, 1

•Fire marshal, 9*

•Facilities, 13

•Sheriff’s department, 115

•Includes some vehicles that are not actually driven home