As the Legislative Council considers approving the funding to purchase 11 new police vehicles, one council member says she wants the town's police on how town cars are marked qualified.
Councilwoman Betty Wetmore said she wants to see tighter controls on which cars are allowed to remain unmarked and who is allowed to drive those unmarked cars where.
It's upsetting for residents to see Hamden town cars parked in shopping centers in far-off towns and the town employees filling those cars with groceries and packages, she said, or to see town cars used to run errands or drop children off at school.
"The taxpayers get mad," she said, "and so they should."
There are only a handful of cars that are assigned to officials 24/7, Chief Administrative Officer Curt Balzano Leng said, and those include the Police Chief, the Fire Chief, the Public Works Director and the Mayor.
A car will now be assigned to the Building Official, who often does work on his own time on the weekends, Leng said, which warrants his access to a town car on the weekends.
But in general, town cars need to be plainly marked with permanent decals on them, Wetmore said, so taxpayers can easily identify them.
Leng said he would come up with a policy for the council to review at its next full meeting scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Government Center third floor conference room.
If I recall correctly Mr. Leng was a member of the L/C when these guidelines were developed. Now Mr. Leng is the Chief Administrative Officer for the Jackson administration, so Mr. Leng should have no problem helping Councilwoman Betty Wetmore tighten the controls on how town owned vehicles should be used by Hamden town employees.
I believe working hours start at 8:30. Do you have an answer as to why she gets away with wasting taxpayers monies with her disregard of office hours and the office beimng closed during working hours.
Outfit the new cars with a GPS device and allow full disclosure tracking on line. Allowing Tax Payers to Monitor where THEIR cars are and for how long? Waste doesn't come only with out of town errands, but in 2 or 3 hour lunches with vehicles parked at their own residence or others all afternoon! We as tax payers have every right to know where our PAID officials are during working hours. Bet that will put a stop to the abuse!
Linda, your suggestion of GPS tracking of town owned vehicles is excellent but sorry to say it would just highlight who is in bed with whom, politically speaking that is.
AS to being a former or present employee, not at all, I am a taxpayer who resents people taking advantage and getting paid for not doing what they should be doing. Guess Nonyabusiness is a close friend or one of the council protecting an employee .He/she seems to know a lot about her office, her lunch time and the hours she puts in. Interesting Ehh!!!
Nonsense. If the cars in question are currently unmarked, how does anyone recognize them as Town of Hamden vehicles? If they're already being recognized even in their current, unmarked state as Town of Hamden vehicles, and this is happening with such frequency that a Councilwoman feels obligated to make this statement based upon actual complaints, then it is obviously not necessary to take any action to make them more recognizable. "Having solved all other problems, the Town of Hamden has decided to plaster their Town-owned vehicles with high-visibility decals in an effort to increase the already high number of complaints among citizens upset with seemingly inappropriate use of the vehicles."