Report Assails Poor Running of City Fleet

Los Angeles city government runs a fleet of vehicles that is too large and too old, with maintenance and fueling operations desperately in need of consolidation and automation, according to a draft report by a consulting firm specializing in analysis of public fleets.

The 218-page, confidential report obtained by The Times offers sweeping recommendations, from having bureaucrats use rental cars for overnight trips to promoting safety with incentives like a steak fry for mechanics whose shops stay accident-free for six months.

It says the city is woefully short of money to replace its aging cars and trucks, lacking about $40 million a year. On the other hand, the study found that many of the city’s 23,000 vehicles are underused and says the staff of 854 mechanics citywide should be reduced by about 250, for a savings of $15 million a year.

“The city’s fleet replacement funding situation is approaching crisis proportions,” the authors wrote after a six-month look at the fleet that included mechanic surveys, interviews and site visits. “The city of Los Angeles can limp along with a fleet of 10-year-old vehicles, but not with a fleet of 20-year-old vehicles.”

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Throughout the first-ever study, which cost about $400,000, consultants David M. Griffith & Associates insist that the city could boost cost-effectiveness by instituting a charge-back system in which various city departments would pay for the vehicles, parts, gas and mechanics’ services that they use, a concept central to Mayor Richard J. Riordan’s philosophy of running the city more like a business.

But most of the city’s seven fleet services departments are too outdated and decentralized to even implement such a system, the report warns, leaving the prospects for change muddled and far off.

The tragedy of last December’s fatal accident involving a city trash truck and a school bus hangs over the report like a dark cloud, though the consultants do not deal directly with how problems in fleet services might have contributed to the incident.

Among the specific revelations in the document:

* Too many employees drive city vehicles, the reimbursement rate for staffers using personal cars for business is too low and the city fails to effectively use motor pools and private rental companies.

* One of seven vehicles managed by the Department of General Services has an accident each year, for a total of 1,400 crashes costing about $1 million--a rate above the national average.

* Fire trucks and police cars are replaced much slower than industry norms and often remain in the fleet longer than the city’s own guidelines suggest. Some fire engines are 30 years old.

* The city has scores of fuel sites and repair shops performing redundant duties, often within just a few miles of each other. Many of these are underutilized and many of the fueling stations do not comply with environmental standards being imposed in two years. The consultants suggest shuttering these rather than retrofitting them.

* The policy of always selecting the low bidder for vehicle, parts or labor contracts has left the city without the best quality equipment and work.

* The Department of Water & Power, where mechanics earn $9,000 more annually than their counterparts in other departments, has by far the best fleet operation because it is run most like a business, with a charge-back system in place.

“It’s a lot of little pieces that all have to coalesce in a coherent plan that will be implemented over several years,” said Jim House of the City Administrative Office, point-person for the project from inside City Hall. “Probably the most troubling thing is to make sure we adhere to the plan and try to implement it in a coherent fashion and not pick and choose.”

For example, House said, meaningful change means making huge investments in technology to bring city record-keeping out of the dark ages. Cutting back on staff, selling off vehicles and shutting down fuel pumps may seem “sexier” because of the city’s looming budget deficit, House said, but those alone will not make the system run better.

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Though City Council members have not yet reviewed the study, when told about its findings some said it is akin to the chicken coming home to roost after decades of being ignored.

“What the decision-makers of this city have been doing for many years is being dishonest with the public,” Councilwoman Laura Chick said of the fleet’s age and the dearth of funds to replace it. “We’re being dishonest about the real cost of doing business. It doesn’t do any good to have more police officers, firefighters and paramedics if they don’t have the equipment to roll out on.”

While policymakers expected the conclusions about the slow replacement of vehicles, a cooler response was given to suggestions about consolidation and cutbacks.

“I can’t imagine that we have 250 mechanics sitting around doing nothing,” said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who chairs the Personnel Committee. “One of the things everybody would love to do is buy a bunch of new vehicles but if they’re saying we should do it by laying off 250 mechanics, I wonder who will service the new vehicles?”

Union Local 347 spokeswoman Julie Butcher denounced the study as “demeaning” to mechanics, who are referred to as “wrench-turners” throughout the report.

“With every single one of these management audits, there’s a very clear presupposition that what will result is that the work force can be reduced by one-third,” Butcher said.

Riordan Press Secretary Noelia Rodriguez said that while she has not read the report, the charge-back concept is what the mayor would like to see in fleet services and other city departments.