CLEVELAND (WJW) — The Fox 8 I-Team has uncovered extra benefits for Cleveland city workers driving take-home cars. This comes on top of tax money paying for gas and maintenance.
We took a closer look at the deal for Cleveland City employees driving “commuter” or take-home cars.
Tax dollars pay for the gas. Tax dollars pay for maintenance. Now we’ve found, for years, the use of a take-home car hasn’t cost the workers anything.
The Mayor’s Office tells us that the City of Cleveland has not been charging workers a commuting fee, a weekly fee outlined in an ordinance passed in 1990.
And, the city has not been taking out taxes for using the cars, yet there’s a reference to that on approval forms.
City of Cleveland take-home cars have been in the spotlight in recent months following I-Team investigations.
We exposed a Hopkins Airport official driving a take-home car while living about 70 miles away and revealed a safety official crashing while driving with kids in a city car against policy.
The I-Team also discovered that the former Safety Director had driven with a child in a city car. Now, we’ve found that the people at City Hall have not been enforcing the policies for making workers pay something for their use of take-home cars.
The city said no taxes have been taken out, and no commuter fees have been collected since 2019.
The city has not explained why it had not been collecting fees from employees or taking out taxes for take-home cars. But, the Mayor’s Office tells us that will start again this year.
City Councilman Michael Polensek said, “You just have to enforce the protocol and the provision. Enforce it. It is a benefit to the City to have people to be able to respond in that vehicle, but it’s also a big plus for the employee who gets that vehicle. So, I see nothing wrong with that charge. And, enforce it.”
Here is the Cleveland city ordinance referring to a ‘commuting fee” for take-home cars:
“Each officer and employee authorized to drive a City vehicle to and from work shall be charged a commuting fee in an amount to be determined by the Director of Finance but not to exceed twenty-five dollars ($25.00) per week. The Commissioner of Accounts is hereby authorized to deduct such charge from the salary or wages due such officers and employees who have filed a written authorization of such deductions.”
While the city plans to resume collecting fees and making deductions for taxes, the Mayor’s Office announced in April that officials also are doing an overall review of take-home cars.
Peggy Gallek
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