Trustees Reach Agreement on Vehicle Policy

After four months of discussions, the Village Board seemed to come to an agreement on the issue of employee vehicles Wednesday night. But with one of the trustees driving the issue absent, it remains to be seen if the debate is over.

Trustees have been considering scaling back the policy on take-home vehicles and vehicle allowances, as a way to save money. The village currently spends roughly $6,072 per year on four take-home vehicles for employees—the police chief, the public works director, and two other members of the , according to Finance Director Jeff Zoephel. 

The village also pays to insure and maintain those vehicles, and spends an additional $8,400 on vehicle allowances for two other staff members (the village manager and the finance director) who use their own cars to drive to work.

At Wednesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, trustees were presented with several options for a new vehicle ordinance, including submitted drafts from Trustees Andy Kaczmarek and Stan Bond. Bond was not present at Wednesday’s meeting.

Rather than attempt to pick one of the options, the five trustees took each issue one at a time, and reached consensus on most of them.

All trustees agreed not to grandfather in current employees, and to restrict take-home vehicles to four members of the Police Department: the chief, a deputy chief (should one be hired), and two investigators. All agreed that employees with take-home vehicles should not be required to live within a certain radius of their place of work.

But there was some disagreement over when to implement the new policy. Trustees Matt Brolley, Denny Lee and Bill Keck agreed to wait until May 1, while Kaczmarek and Pete Heinz said they would like to see it take effect on Jan. 1. And the vote was similarly split over retaining vehicle allowances.

Village staff will go with the majority in both cases when drafting a new policy. But Bond’s vote may be an important one on both of the disputed issues. His suggested version of the ordinance eliminates all vehicle allowances, and makes no mention of a date by which to implement the new policy.

The Village Board will likely vote on the new vehicle policy on Monday, Nov. 14. Earlier drafts of the ordinance have reached the board level twice—an early version was voted down 4-2 on Oct. 10, and a newer draft was tabled and sent back to the Committee of the Whole on Oct. 24.