City workers get record number of 'free' rides
By DAVID SEIFMAN, NY Post
Mayor Bloomberg presides over a driven government.
Documents released yesterday by the Office of Payroll Administration in response to a months-old Freedom of Information request show that the number of city workers commuting in their official vehicles matches the record of 2,409 set in 2005.
In 2007, a total of 2,275 of them drove to and from home at taxpayer expense using taxpayer-supplied gas. Back in 2003, there were just 1,547.
Leading the pack, ironically, was the Department of Environmental Protection, with 440 employees getting commuting privileges.
The mayor, who boasts that he's a regular subway rider, has pledged to reduce the city's carbon footprint by 30 percent.
The Buildings Department granted the transit freebie to 230 workers.
The FDNY maintained its perch near the top of the list with 155.
The only cost to most of the commuters is the tax they pay on the value of their free rides.
For most FDNY employees the value is listed at $660. That would put their out-of-pocket cost at about $220 a year -- or less than the price of three monthly MetroCards.
26 comments:
A fitting quote by Don Giovanni Boccaccio . “Do as we say, and not as we do”.
"The mayor, who boasts that he's a regular subway rider, has pledged to reduce the city's carbon footprint by 30 percent."
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Both the regular subway rider part and the pledge part are deliberate lies.
The fix is to make the employees pay for leasing and gassing the vehicle.
Exempt only the FDNY users who arrive at the scene of a fire regularly.
Plenty of people legitimately need these vehicles. My brother in law, a high ranking corrections officer has a city car with a siren because he is on call 24/7 and may have to be Johnny on the Spot to handle a riot.
Do you want to charge him too? How about paying him double time when he has to leave his bed at 2:00 am or on a Sunday to handle an emergency.
im sure when he rushes in for an emergency he is not doing it out of the kindness of his heart im sure that he does get paid overtime so ur comment makes no sense i say he should drive his own car
where i live in maspeth there a neighbow who works for the dep he has a city car that he uses to commute he even comments that he never went on an emergency call with the vehicle in 10 years he says its teh best deal free gas insurance and tolls he jokes
No, he makes zero overtime. He's not a flunkey, he's considered management.
Oh, and by the way, you've just advocated someone taking a personal vehicle into a high-security area so that every prisoner could get his personal address and visit him when they get out.
Also, no siren on a personal car.
hmmm how do the other guards get there they all walk to work so there goes the person information argument. also. also so u know according to coba contract they do get paid overtime just asked a capt in the corrections and they do get overtime he should read his contract better.
I never said he was a guard. He's quite a bit higher than a guard, but believe what you want. Prisons have management as well as labor.
And when the place is rioting, you better have a siren and take charge fast. Imagine if a person in an unmarked personal car was trying to speed ahead of you in the road. You would not let them by because you would not see the urgency.
the guy i spoke with is a captain of rikers swat team he advised that he does get paid overtime if he is called in but then again he is a captain i asked him just now what managment is he said they have nothing to do with emergency response he said do you really think that if we had a riot the people in managment will fight back with there pencils. just a quick question how many times a year does he respond to these emergencies to justify a car expense , figure if he leased a car paid insurance and gas and wear and tear it costs at approx 8k a year to the taxpayers
The man who I am referring to is no captain either. Try speaking to people who know what they are talking about instead of the underlings.
You know what? I actually think you have a great idea on the leased cars. Why don't we get rid of all ambulances, fire trucks, police cars and other emergency vehicles and send the emergency workers to Hertz Rent A Car.
The rookies can peddle to their on tricycles.
The point of this post is that there are city workers who have the privilege of a take home vehicle when it is not needed. See previous John Deutzmann stories.
Why do 440 DEP employees get cars? That's quite excessive.
the whole point is that these people that get city vehicles do not really need them they in there own opinion beleive that since the city gave the vehicles to the other people that they deserve them. the cost of the car should be included in there salary and they should be taxed on it , if they do that then we will see the people that abuse the city city vehicle will give them up because now they have to pay tax on the car while it is not being used during official business. while on duty they are not charged but when the vehicle is taken home and not on official business consider that in there pay and tax them on that part only. and to the person that commented about leasing vehicles guess what the nypd and nyfd and city council do lease vehicles and they are not tricycles and u know why they are not tricycles cause we the taxpayer pick the bill up im sure if they had to pay they would be tricycles as for the nypd the captains and inspectors get a leased car the few i have seen are volvos , saabs, and suv's.
If you have a job that requires you to be on call 24/7 and that involves an emergency response where you need to use sirens or lights to get through traffic, you cannot use your own car.
If you take such a car home, it's not personal use because you have been authorized to take the car home, because you may have to put on the siren and come screaming back to the job.
Obviously, you don't use the city car to buy your groceries in or go on day trips with the kids.
Yes, but most of them do. There was a car with "official" plates parked in a no standing zone outside Atlas Park this week.
In addition, you can put a removable strobe light and siren on your personal vehicle. It would be cheaper for the city to hand those out.
and u as a taxpayer make sure that the cars are not used for personal use nobody moniters this at all
Go down to the parks dept offices next to the bus depot.Why do they have so many vehicles? Too mant chiefs and not enough indians!
Strobe Lights are indeed cheap, but they have to be attached to a powerful vehicle with good shocks and good handling capabilities if you expect the car to double as an emergency vehicle.
The car my brother in law is supplied by the city has special heavy duty shocks and a highpowered engine on a heavy car.
The family car is a van. Imagine the van flying down the expressway at 100 miles an hour, strobe lights flashing. Even better if the city employee is driving a Geo Metro.
Why would they be doing that? Emergency service personnel would be the ones that respond like bats out of hell (Cops, firemen, EMS). Just because you were called to the scene as a supervising employee, doesn't give you the right to speed down the expressway and put others in danger.
whenn 9-11 happened the fdny called all personnal to report to the scene even if they where off duty they made it there in personal cars i think a supervisor could also
The supervisor I am talking about once was decorated for single-handedly capturing a dangerous mentally ill prisoner who attempted to escape.
All supervisors don't sit in offices writing reports. Some of them are involved in putting down riots just as a field general like Patton or Eisenhower had to be in the field with flying bullets.
did he have to drive there to get him or was he already there
omg patton u gotta be kidding with that comparision. if thats ur case every police officer that catches a criminial should get a take home car
Compare the police chief with the average police officer. Does the chief have special privileges? Do additional responsibilities come with them? And does it take many years of a long career to get there?
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