Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller put forward a proposal to limit the amount of County owned vehicles to be used by members of the Board of Supervisors as a way of cost cutting costs for the sake County residents. Miller proposed studying how much money it would save the taxpayers and begin lessening the burden on Pima County residents to a more manageable average.
Miller wishes to end the Pima County practice of providing cars and join the other 11 Arizona counties that do not provide such a perk for their own board members. According to a report done by Matthew Schwartz at KVOA, the only other counties that give similar perks are Pinal and Gila. In Pinal only three of the five supervisors actually called in to own a county owned car, according to Schwartz. Of all the members of the Pima County Board, Miller is the only one who has turned away the free vehicle. She said that the use of the vehicles puts an extra burden on residents and that in the end, it only makes the Board look bad.
The perk currently costs taxpayers nearly three quarter of a million dollars a year.
“Given the slow economic recovery in Pima County, and most certainly we are lagging behind Maricopa County and other areas, and the salaries that the supervisors get is statutorily defined. (It is) $76,500 a year, and I used a County car when I first got elected and I realized that this is an excessive amount that is being donated to the supervisors, that using that car was excessive in my opinion…I live in my district so I’m back and forth in my district all the time…People in this community are hurting,” Miller told Schwartz. “And I think we would be tone-deaf if we didn’t end the practice of supervisors utilizing county vehicles.”
An end to the vehicle policy would help say County residents who complain that the roads seem to get worse every day. Getting rid of a few freebies for the Board would seem like a quick and easy way to show that they have some empathy for the people they govern, but the proposal was greeted by what some would call frustrated responses.
No one on the Board seconded Miller’s motion and Supervisor Ray Carroll, a fellow Republican, seemed to grow ever more annoyed with the subject as it continued on for a mere four minutes after Miller finished her explanation. Carroll changed the topic and made a request that County Administrator Chuck Huckleberry’s staff perform a study on the usage of County owned vehicles and those employees, who do take advantage of the perk. He claimed that he wouldn’t second Miller’s motion due to the fact that there was no background information on the subject and that he wasn’t accustomed to voting on a proposal when he didn’t have enough information. His claim startled Board watchers who have witnessed time and time again uninformed voting by the majority of Board members.
Carroll suggested that Huckleberry’s staff come back with some kind of information by the October 20th meeting. However, even when the vote does come up again, Board watchers do not expect a change of heart in the majority of Board members. Residents in attendance at this week’s Board meeting said that the information about the practices in other counties and the cost to Pima County taxpayers should have been enough for anyone to decide right then and there that the freebie is inequitable.
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