Unsuck DC Metro: Take Home Vehicles Just the Tip of the Iceberg?

Monday, September 19, 2011

Take Home Vehicles Just the Tip of the Iceberg?

Illustration

It sounds like the $1 million spent on late-model, take-home vehicles by Metro during a budget crisis is just the tip of the iceberg.

Fraud and abuse, as reported in a recent Examiner article is rampant, according to several current and former Metro employees.

Said one Metro employee:

One should double, if not triple, the list of Metro vehicles being used dubiously.

I can tell you for sure that there are also plenty of other vehicles taken away from work crews by upper and mid-level managers.

There is one [manager] that comes and takes a car from our crew almost every day. That car is not covered by any of the recent articles on take-home vehicles.

He brings it back with an empty gas tank, and we have to pull someone [from our crew] to go fill it.

Another former employee said one Metro worker often used a Metro vehicle to go on fishing trips--while on duty.

That same employees said the Metro Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has known about this kind of abuse for a long time, but has done nothing about it.

Said another employee in a recent comment:

Metro also has a way to make sure all the superintendents work at a shop that is as far away from their home as possible. Then they get Metro vehicles "for emergencies." Now, the only real emergency I can think of is a snow emergency. Even then, some superintendents will not get into work. And yes, Metro pays for the gas and insurance. And NO Metro employee can use the vehicle other than the superintendent.

When Richard White was in charge, they had an employee every day take the vehicle to fill it with gas and wash it.EVERY DAY! And Richard White lived less than 10 miles away!

Another former employee said that even superintendents' cars are sitting idly, they can't be used, for example, to haul parts where needed, holding up repairs throughout the system.

Finally, yet another Metro employee confirmed the above and added "if you think the list of take-home vehicles is complete, you're crazy. They might not be officially 'take home,' but they are used for personal business all the time, including being taken home."

Other items:
Can McDonnell appoint Metro Board member? (Examiner)

Comments (16)

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+7 Vote up Vote down

Radner · 705 weeks ago

In the Examiner article, Stessel says that the vehicle that the employee was taking home was part of "a separate pool of service vehicles". Where is the list of these vehicles? How is it that they can account for the take home vehicles and not the rest of them?

Also, it seems like investigating/firing this person, along with firing the person that beat up a drunk, is the first and second of what is hopefully a series of steps being taken to show some accountability to the public. While I personally disagree with the firing of the bus driver, perhaps there is more information that hasn't been made available that led to his termination. I'll never know.

But is all this an attempt to clean up Metro and stop wasting money? Is it a PR stunt to say "Hey, we can do our jobs after all"? That has yet to be seen.

1 reply · active 705 weeks ago

-1 Vote up Vote down

n2deep · 705 weeks ago

the firing of the bus driver is only to appease the blood thirsty public AND to divert your attention away from real issues like the "take home" vehicles. metro will call it one thing so they can then play dumb when other vehicles are used for the same thing. they will call it something different like, emergency response vehicles or special project cars etc. then when they are confronted they can play dumb and say,"Oh you mean them cars as well?"

+15 Vote up Vote down

anon · 705 weeks ago

Getting a vehicle is better than a raise. Free, untaxed transport. Cronies only, though.

4 replies · active 704 weeks ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

DCA · 705 weeks ago

Isn't some of that taxable (wasn't that part of what got former Sen. Daschle in trouble a couple years ago)? It might be below a threshold, but I believe such compensation is taxable at least under certain circumstances.

+2 Vote up Vote down

KLO · 705 weeks ago

It is taxable when it is personal use of the employer vehicle. Commuting expenses are personal use for most employees. Where, however, the employee's duty begins as soon as he begins his commute (e.g. police officer who, if called during his commute, would go to crime scene), then there is no personal use. For this to not be taxable income, WMATA must take the position that these employees are on duty as soon as they begin their commute. For this to be the case, the employees should be required to report in as soon as they enter the vehicle such that they are available to respond to emergencies or other exigencies of the employer. If this is not the case and WMATA is not reporting the value of the vehicle as wages, it is doing it incorrectly.

0 Vote up Vote down

@Hell_on_wheelz · 705 weeks ago

So any of you who work for IRS in auditting - cross reference employer= WMATA with income > (50% of WMATA employee average)?

Even if the employer is mis-reporting the value of vehicle use.. the responsibility for reporting the vehicle value is on the -individual taxpayer-.

0 Vote up Vote down

KnowsAboutWMATA · 704 weeks ago

For some positions (e.g. management that aren't front line supervisors) you are considered on duty 24/7. You can be called 24/7 for example. So that's probably how they get around this issue.

-5 Vote up Vote down

YTK · 705 weeks ago

So am I surprised? This is a stupid little podunk city run by equallyinefficient slobs

+2 Vote up Vote down

John · 705 weeks ago

Wow a whopping 3 comments for this bombshell of a story?

Figured there'd be a lot of great discussion here...

+7 Vote up Vote down

Ex Metro · 705 weeks ago

This is right on the money. I can't tell you how many times, I saw supt cars sitting around when we needed to ship parts.

+12 Vote up Vote down

@Hell_on_wheelz · 705 weeks ago

The sheer weight of WMATA's inefficiency staggers the mind.

What more can anyone say?

1 reply · active 705 weeks ago

+5 Vote up Vote down

former employee · 705 weeks ago

The Board of Directors needs to ask the OIG what they are doing about compliants of waste abuse and fraud. Elected officicals needs to ask questions before writing a blank check. Metro can not handle their current budget woes... The more money Metro gets, the more arrogant mgmt. becomes...

It would not take much to investigate complaints such as abuse of take home vechiles. Is the OIG to cozy with mgmt.? I wonder.

+16 Vote up Vote down

DCRider · 705 weeks ago

Where do I apply for one of these WMATA jobs? I'm tired of my current job where I'm expected to perform competently in order to receive pay and benefits....

2 replies · active 705 weeks ago

+9 Vote up Vote down

Radner · 705 weeks ago

Your post prompted me to go to the wmata careers page and look at the available jobs. Wouldn't you love a job repairing those escalators at $40.29/hour? And all the education you need is a HS Diploma and some Vo/Tech school.

+1 Vote up Vote down

former employee · 705 weeks ago

it is not what you know it is who you know..... Benefits: go to work site, visually inspect (blindfolds provided). You may have to go to learning center for one of our instructors to teach you the "ropes" ( instructor who may been moved to that dept. because of problems in other depts...we believe in moving the problem) Work at your own pace... There is no supervision, just fill out the time card and you are done and paid.

-4 Vote up Vote down

Nicole · 705 weeks ago

I think Unsuck does a great job watching WMATA. But, please don't be a mouthpiece for the likes of Denver billionaire Philip F. Anschutz, who loses hug money every year in support of propagating his right-wing agenda. As far as he is concerned, we the commuters in the D.C., are serfs, cattle to be corralled by those he hires to spin, obfuscate, and outright lie.

Anschutz doesn’t commute and following his agenda there would be no Metro just more congestion and worse traffic jams, after all the serfs deserve no better. Keep up the good work of monitoring WMATA, but don’t degrade yourself or your efforst by being an unpaid puppet of the likes of Philip F. Anschutz, a man who holds you in contempt and is out to destroy any organization where a union prevents the empoyees from becoming serfs to the likes of him.