22 WCSD administrators have district cars despite audits that recommended cuts

Siobhan McAndrew | Reno Gazette-Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Watch: What is the safety priority of your Washoe County School Board Trustee? The Reno Gazette Journal asked the seven Washoe County School District trustees for their school safety priority. Listen to their views on single point of entry, door locks and more training for school police officers.

The Washoe County School District does not agree with two audits that recommend it take away district cars for 22 top administrators.

According to a June internal audit of the transportation department, the district would save as much as $32,000 a year in fuel and maintenance expenses by rescinding the perk.

By not allowing the 22 administrators to take the cars home each night, the district would save money by freeing up the cars for use by other employees to reduce travel reimbursements, according to the audit.

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The June report is a followup to a 2015 internal audit that made the same recommendations when the district had 15 top administrators with take-home vehicles.

Since then, seven more administrators were given take-home cars.

The district could not immediately answer how many miles administrators drive for work on average currently, but the 2015 audit showed none reached the 1,000 mile-per-month requirement.

According to a Washoe County School District administrative regulation, a district-owned vehicle may be assigned to an individual when at least 1,000 miles of travel per month are required for district business.

The district was not immediately able to answer the make and model of the vehicles driven by administrators, but said the district's area superintendents are provided four-door Ford Fusion Hybrids.

District disputes savings estimate

The district said in documents that administrators, including area superintendents, schedule meetings at other sites on their way to their work, and the savings would be minimal if they eliminated take-home vehicles.

"The lost productivity of managers traveling past locations to pick up or drop off a motor pool vehicle is another important factor that was not quantified here, but based on break-even analysis, indicates would likely create a net financial loss for the district," documents the district submitted in response to the audit.

In 2015, the audit found that personal commute miles were estimated to be 66 percent of the total miles driven by administrators with take-home cars.

District spokesperson Victoria Campbell said administrators are not allowed to use the cars for anything more than commuting to the office and for work.

Audit on Tuesday board agenda

In documents ahead of Tuesday's school board meeting, the district said it agrees the issue needs to be reviewed but does not agree with the "elimination of all take-home vehicles as this time."

The audit is listed under a block set of consent agenda items on Tuesday's school board meeting. A review of the take-home car policy is not up for discussion.

"Although we agree that the number of take home vehicles should be reduced, we do not agree it would be cost effective to eliminate take-home vehicles for all administrative staff and we believe it is premature to consider expansion of a motor pool, as it may be more economical to eliminate all pooled cars."

Other recommendations made in the audits include requiring district employees to use district-owned vehicles when available. In 2016-17, the district reimbursed employees approximately $391,000 for mileage. The audit said strategically placing the district's cars at locations around the district would reduce reimbursements.

The district said it may consider expanding the motor pool or consider eliminating all vehicles and instead stick with mileage reimbursement or car stipends for managers.

Superintendent Traci Davis is the only administrator with a car allowance. Per her contract, she gets $800 a month for expenses for her personal vehicle.

The 22 vehicles used by administrators are in addition to 26 take-home vehicles used by the school district's police department. The auditors did not recommend cutting the police officers' vehicles because they "provide services critical to public safety and could be called to work after regular hours."

The audit also said that five Nevada districts, including Clark County School District, do not allow take-home vehicles for area superintendents or other administrative posts.

The Nevada Department of Education also said it does not have any employees with take-home vehicles.

Take-home vehicles are assigned to: