Use one gauge to decide whether the cars go home: Does it benefit the taxpayers?

There is really only one reason for a public employee to be driving a government car to and from work and that is if the practice truly benefits the employer -- the taxpayer.
A report in Sunday's Vindicator would suggest that value to the taxpayer, however, is the last thing on the minds of some of the people who are using municipal vehicles to get to and from work or on the minds of the officeholders and supervisors who are turning over the keys.
Instead, it appears, vehicles in many cases are being viewed as perks or fringe benefits that serve the function of making life easier for the employee. But (dare we point it out?), taxpayers aren't supposed to be paying to make life easier for employees.
As a rule, it seems to make sense for police officers to drive their marked cruisers home, provided they live in the city, village or township in which they're employed. The added visibility of the cruisers is a crime deterrent, and arguably taxpayers are getting their money's worth.
Allowing employees to drive unmarked cars home obviously has no such deterrence value. Only employees who are on call and are likely to have to respond quickly should be permitted to take unmarked cars home.
24,000 mile-per-year mechanic
Perhaps the most dramatic example of abuse in the area occurs in the Youngstown Police Department, but does not involve a police officer.
The garage foreman, Joe Mattern, drives a department pickup truck to and from work every day -- and most of those days, home is a cottage in Jamestown, Pa. The round trip is nearly 100 miles across country roads and takes more than an hour each way.
If he were called back, he couldn't respond within a time limit that would meet any reasonable definition of an emergency. And why does Mattern need a city vehicle? Because, perhaps a half dozen times a year the spare keys he carries are needed to move a vehicle in the garage.
Here's a suggestion: put clearly marked back-up keys in a lockbox and give the key to the lockbox to the turn sergeant.
Problem solved. If a key were needed, it could be accessed more quickly and efficiently than calling someone in from rural Pennsylvania.
And instead of Mattern putting about 24,000 miles on a city-owned pick-up truck, he can do what most taxpayers have to do every day. They drive their own cars to work. They pay for their own gas, tires, maintenance and replacement. And the city would save thousands of dollars.
Time for an appraisal
In Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, there are hundreds of government owned vehicles being used every day to transport public employees to and from work.
The Youngstown garage foreman's example may provide the most egregious example of a vehicle's use failing to meet any reasonable cost/benefit analysis. There are, we suspect, dozens of others in which all the costs accrue to the taxpayers, but almost all the benefits accrue to the employee.
Those departments that have strict and well-policed take-home policies have earned the respect and gratitude of their residents. Those that have gotten lax or sloppy, those that can't justify their policies or don't even bother to enforce them, should begin living up to their responsibility to their voters.