By Phil Kabler
Staff writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Joe Manchin will propose legislation next week to consolidate and centralize the state's vehicle fleet, after legislative auditors last fall cited rampant misuse of state vehicles.
"The legislation is still being worked on. It's not finalized yet," Manchin spokesman Matt Turner said Tuesday of changes Manchin will propose for the 2010 regular session of the Legislature, which begins Jan. 13.

A series of legislative audits last fall found that the state spends $60 million to $70 million a year to maintain its fleet of nearly 7,000 vehicles -- including $24 million for gasoline alone in 2008 -- but has no effective way to monitor employees' use of the vehicles.

The audit determined that nearly 500 state employees are assigned state vehicles for commuting, including many who use the vehicles almost exclusively to commute, with little or no travel on state business.

A subsequent Gazette investigation found that more than 800 state employees had claimed payroll deductions in calendar year 2008 for the value of using state vehicles for commuting or other personal uses.

A follow-up legislative audit found that state vehicles had been involved in more than 5,000 accidents during a five-year period from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2009, at a cost of more than $22.7 million in claims and deductibles paid by the state.

That audit concluded that most state agencies have no standard policy for reporting or monitoring accidents in state vehicles, or to discipline employees for at-fault accidents.

Department of Administration spokeswoman Diane Holley-Brown confirmed Tuesday that Manchin will propose legislation to improve fleet management.

"There will be something introduced in the governor's [legislative] package on fleet management," she said. "It will be looking at ways to make fleet management more efficient, and to get a bigger bang for the state's vehicles."

The department has a one-person Fleet Management Division, but that division oversees only about 1,700 vehicles of the state's total fleet.

In October, Manchin set up an informal task force to address problems cited in the legislative audits.

As part of that group's mandate, some members of the task force, including Administration Secretary Robert Ferguson, traveled to Richmond, Va., to study Virginia's Office of Fleet Management Services.

Unlike West Virginia, where many state agencies operate their own vehicle fleets, Virginia has a centralized fleet, with strict policies for assignment and use of state vehicles.

Turner said Tuesday he expects at least some of the recommendations from the Virginia visit will be incorporated into the proposed legislation.

"I think certainly some of that will come into play," he said.

Holley-Brown said the task force did not complete a formal report, but worked with the governor's office to come up with proposals for the fleet management legislation.

"It's my understanding the governor has worked directly with members on the task force," she said. "I'm sure many of their recommendations will be incorporated into legislation for this session."

Reach Phil Kabler at 304-348-1220.