Commissioners fill up often on taxpayer’s dime | The Augusta Chronicle

Augusta taxpayers have paid more than $6,700 for gasoline for four city commissioners’ private vehicles this year, records show.

 

Super District 9 Commissioner Marion Williams defended burning the most fuel in 11 months – 641.9 gallons at a total cost of $2,173 – as the cost of providing good constituent service. Other commissioners using city gas cards are Grady Smith, Corey Johnson and Bill Fennoy.

 

“I don’t have an office; I don’t have a staff. They give us a little gas allotment. I think it’s more than fair; I think it’s justified,” Williams said, en route Wednesday he said to examine a pothole that damaged a voter’s vehicle.

 

Under a policy written in 1965, commissioners are allotted 125 gallons of gas each month. Since 1998, when the city shut down its fueling stations, commissioners and other city employees have used gas cards. They now have Wright Express cards they can use only for fuel at almost any commercial gas station, city Fleet Manager Ron Crowden said.

 

Usage is down since 2008, when former commissioners Joe Bowles and Jerry Brigham pushed to limit the monthly allotment to 50 gallons. The effort failed. Back then, seven commissioners used gas cards. Now, only four do.

 

Williams said the amount he’s purchased – for his 1998 Lexus, his diesel-powered truck or occasionally, his Harley Davidson motorcycle – was miniscule “compared to the stuff we throw away; the things we do so wrong,” while commissioners who don’t use the cards “probably have got plenty of money and don’t need it.”

via Commissioners fill up often on taxpayer’s dime | The Augusta Chronicle.