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Home > Clayton.Talk > Archives > 2008 > January > 21
Monday, January 21, 2008
Clayton puts brakes on county vehicle use
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As of February 1, county employees will no longer be allowed to drive county vehicles home.
As per news reports, more than 70 police officers will lose their cars.
“Commissioner [Sonna] Singleton and I voted against this matter because we believed that more consideration was sorely needed. The county police were not the only departments with major concerns regarding their abilities to provide for the needs of the citizens because of this change. Fire, EMS, EMA, etc. will also be severely impacted,” explains Commissioner Wole Ralph.
“This process was done in a vacuum with commissioners Bell, Edmondson and Gray making their decisions without department heads. It was also done without taking into account the economic impact of the families of county employees, and their needs. As a result I asked Chairman Bell, in his role as chairman, to meet with department heads, gather their input and bring back to the board a recommendation, but he refused. As a result we could not support a process that we believed to be closed, insufficient, did not address critical needs in the county and lacked compassion for the employees.”
Chairman Eldrin Bell along with Commissioners Virginia Gray and Michael Edmondson voted in favor of the policy changes despite objections from Police Chief Jeff Turner and several Clayton residents.
Bell says this move will save more than $3 million in fuel costs yearly.
That $3 million will cost Clayton residents police visibility and response times. This will also affect how many crimes get solved - or don’t get solved.
Isn’t there another way to cut costs without putting the public at risk?
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy - Martin Luther King, Jr.
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