With a third of the year still to go, law enforcement agencies are likely to greatly surpass their budgets for fuel, and officials are looking at ways of cutting back.
Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin said fuel prices have increased, but so have the department’s number of calls for assistance.
“We’ll definitely be going over budget in our fuel side,” Entrekin said.
There are some funds from positions not filled that he hopes to move around to cover fuel cost overruns to help the department make it through the year.
“It’s been a direct impact on our budget,” Entrekin said.
The Sheriff’s Department usually runs “single cars,” or one deputy assigned to a car on weekends, but the department has tried to put two deputies assigned to a car during the week at nights to be able to park a patrol car.
However, Entrekin said that hasn’t worked out.
“Our number of calls for service are so much that there’s very little time when we can put two people in a car,” Entrekin said. “We’re trying our best to conserve in every way we can, but calls for service is what’s killing us now.”
He said the average deputy puts 200 to 250 miles per day on a car at night. Day-shift deputies put about half that mileage.
Through May, the department had spent $2,000 more than had been budgeted for the entire year. Entrekin said he expects fuel costs to be over budget by about $50,000 based on the current cost of fuel.
The department has five cars, usually, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. During the day, the department has eight cars on the road.
Entrekin said deputies also have to make trips to prisons and to mental hospitals.
Gadsden Police Chief Richard Crouch said the department is looking at cutting back in other areas, but not reducing patrols. The department has policies in place to not run cars unnecessarily, and supervisors have been reminded to keep a closer eye on that.
“We are doing the little things that we can do to minimize gas usage, but we cannot let it affect operations,” Crouch said.
Crouch said the department would have to “absorb” the overage in other areas, such as delaying purchases or scaling back on other things.
The department will not be putting two officers in vehicles.
“Then you have two pairs of eyes looking at the same thing that one pair of eyes can observe,” Crouch said. “You have effectively reduced your patrol capacity when you put two people in a car.
“We’re not going to let it impact service to the public.”
Crouch said the “average” miles a car would travel on a beat would be about 70, but that figure is somewhat meaningless because some areas are much larger to cover than other areas.
Attalla Mayor Charles O’Rear said the city likely will exceed its budget for gas for the entire year in the next month or so and will have to make some budget adjustments before the end of the year.
O’Rear said the city is “curtailing some excess travel” and trying to combine trips by employees.
The Police Department is doubling up officers in cars and is not running cars at all times during “non-peak hours.”
But the department is running all police cars at night.
“We’re not idling vehicles,” O’Rear said.
He said employees have been told to take their breaks in the areas they are in and not go to other areas of the city.
The city also has newer vehicles that get better gas mileage.
O’Rear said he is considering switching some departments to a four-day work week to save the employees and possibly the city fuel, but he has not discussed the issue with the council.
Through April, the city had spent 75 percent of the city’s fuel budget.
The fiscal year goes through Sept. 30.
Gadsden assistant Fire Chief Randy Smith said the department is trying to minimize trips where possible and make sure all equipment needed is available to save on fuel costs.
Jim Barker, fleet manager for the city of Gadsden, said the city has budgeted just less than $1 million for fuel for the year and had spent 84 percent of that amount through May. He said if the trend continues, the city would be about $160,000 over budget if fuel prices don’t go up even more.
Barker increased the city’s fuel budget by 25 percent from last year to this, but he had not known how much fuel prices would go up.
Barker said he sent Mayor Sherman Guyton a list of ways to help cut fuel costs, including suggesting that idle time for vehicles be reduced to less than a minute, keeping proper air pressure in tires and trying to reduce the number of vehicles going to a job site.
Barker said the city has been looking at converting some city vehicles to propane, which, after installing equipment, would save the city money after 18 months because propane is less expensive than gasoline.
Buying smaller police vehicles would save 15 percent in fuel costs.
Barker said converting some city departments to four-day, 10-hour shifts also could save fuel by reducing trips to work sites.
Officials also are looking at buying hybrid vehicles for the city to help cut fuel costs.
He said cities need to look not only at saving gas, but saving energy as well.
“A gallon of gas goes in a lot of different directions, and you can’t just stop it at the car pump, because there’s too many other places it’s going to,” Barker said.
“We need to start thinking about alternative fuels, and we need to get the vehicles in optimal shape to where they will get their best gas mileage.”
He said the city has about 35 vehicles that can run on E-85 gasoline, which is about 60 cents per gallon cheaper than regular gasoline. He is trying to find a local source for E-85 fuel.
Increasingly, state and local governments are considering using debt collectors to recover outstanding debt, according to David Cherner, legal counsel and legislative director of state governmental affairs for ACA International in Minneapolis.
Chener, who discussed the issue in the current edition of ACA’s ACTION monthly e-newsletter, which covers national and international government affairs, says that with government budget deficit concerns still looming, many states and smaller governmental bodies are focusing on the recovery of outstanding government debt, such as unpaid court costs, personal and property taxes and other delinquencies owed to municipalities.
Legislation in Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee, has been introduced to permit a private third-party debt collector to recover outstanding government debt, Chener points out.
“States understand third-party provides an expertise they [governmental bodies] can use, they do not have that expertise,” Chener told insideARM. The legislation also makes the collection fees an add-on to any bill, so the cost of making the collections is shifted away from government to the private sector.
As governments continue to see budget constraints, Chener expects continuing use of creative ways to collect debts, which could mean increased use of outside collectors.
In the newsletter, Chener highlights some of the recent state legislation on collections:
In New Jersey, AB 2178 would permit the state, municipal courts, counties, and municipalities to place a surcharge on delinquent debts of up to 25 percent to pay the costs of hiring a private debt collector. This bill passed the state Assembly and was sent to the Senate without reference in mid-June.
Iowa Senate File 2428, signed into law in mid-May, permits the judicial branch to contract with a private collection designee for the collection of court debt 60 days after the court debt in a case is deemed delinquent. The bill requires the contract to provide for a collection fee equal to 25 percent of the amount of the court debt in a case deemed delinquent. The 25 percent collection fee is added to the court debt deemed delinquent and is the responsibility of the party owing the debt.
