Hinsdale expects to save money with new employee vehicle policy

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Updated: April 2, 2012 1:55AM

Hinsdale Village President Tom Cauley said he expects significant future savings for the village, following the adoption of a new employee vehicle policy.

The policy, approved by the Village Board Jan. 24, reduces the number of village employees who take village vehicles home, which means the village will have to purchase fewer vehicles in the future.

“It’s about one new vehicle each year that we have had to purchase before,” Cauley said. “This new policy is partially about cost savings. It also allows me better ability to oversee our vehicle use. We’re better able to monitor the use of village vehicles.”

Cauley said the village will continue to have a pool of vehicles available for employee use during work hours. He said use of those vehicles is restricted to within Hinsdale, unless prior approval is given.

Employees still having 24-hour use of a village vehicle are the village manager, whose contract includes such use; police chief, fire chief, on-call deputy police chief and water and sewer supervisor.

“We kept the vehicles for the positions that are important to public safety and service,” Cauley said.

No longer having 24 village vehicles are the assistant village manager, director of public services, director of community development, director of parks & recreation, one of the two deputy police chiefs, village engineer and assistant fire chief.

With fewer village employees no longer having the use of village-owned vehicles on a 24-hour basis, the Village Board also voted to offer six surplus vehicles for sale to the affected employees. Those vehicles are being offered for Blue Book value, Cauley said, which ranges from $1,500 for a 2004 Ford Taurus to $5,500 for a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria. Any of the six vehicles not purchased by employees will be sold via ebay auction.

The employees who no longer have 24-hour vehicles instead will receive a vehicle allowance. But that won’t be the case for future employees, Cauley said.

“It will be like in the corporate world where you submit mileage to your employer and are reimbursed for it,” he said. Employees submitting mileage on personal vehicles used for village business will be reimbursed at the IRS mileage rate, and currently is 55.5 cents per mile.

“We’ll have some savings this year with the sale of the six surplus vehicles and those vehicles no longer filling up at the village’s gas pump,” Cauley said. “The savings will be eve more significant in the future because we’ll have to purchase fewer vehicles.”