Sunday, March 30, 2003 L.B. vehicle policy eyed   By Jason Gewirtz, Staff writer Council: Officials say review of personal use, reimbursement rules due. LONG BEACH When it comes to the personal use of city vehicles, City Attorney Bob Shannon says the rules are simple: City cars are for city business. That message may not have been communicated to City Council members until the Press-Telegram requested city vehicle records in January. Council members say they received little, if any, guidance regarding the personal use of city cars. Since 2001, city records show, individual council members have recorded driving as few as 290 personal miles a year and as many as 6,733. "There was never any training,' said Councilman Rob Webb, who has driven a city car since June 2001. Elected leaders are required to estimate their personal mileage for income tax purposes, but the city does not charge them for the gasoline and maintenance costs involved in their private use of city cars. That is about to change. On Jan. 13, a week after the Press-Telegram made a public records request for city vehicle information, Shannon issued a memo reminding city officials that personal use of city vehicles is prohibited. Then, after further examining the city's procedures and practices, Shannon and City Auditor Gary Burroughs on March 20 issued a more blunt memo to the mayor and council. They "strongly encouraged' the council to adopt a new policy regarding transportation while on city business: either require all council members to switch to a monthly allowance or decide that city vehicles are a part of elected officials' compensation and can be used without restriction. If neither action is taken, they wrote, elected officials will be required to reimburse the city when they use a city vehicle for non-city business, starting in January 2004. Despite Shannon's prohibition, the city's Financial Management Department implies that personal use of city cars is acceptable. On annual forms, council members are required to estimate their "personal use mileage' for the Internal Revenue Service. That figure includes the distance they travel between their home and City Hall, not counting distance traveled to city-related meetings. Some council members say they need access to their cars at all times because they are constantly on call. "I could be at a friend's house for dinner and get a call that there's been a gang battle in my district,' Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal said. "It's a 24-7 kind of position.' Shannon concedes that defining city business is more difficult with respect to council members than for other city employees. But the possibility of being called out at odd hours does not necessarily meet the legal threshold, he said. "What if she should decide to take (her car) to Las Vegas?' he said. "Is that city business? What constitutes city business and what doesn't is far less clear.' The part-time council members also disagree about whether it's appropriate to take their city vehicles to their non-city jobs. Since 2001, Councilwoman Laura Richardson has recorded the most mileage of all council members, as well as the most personal mileage of the five elected officials who drive city cars. In 2002, she said 6,733 of the 22,369 miles she drove were for personal use, according to city finance records. In 2001, when she reported 4,401 personal miles, handwritten notes on the annual mileage sheet record 2,750 miles spent commuting to a job at UCLA. Richardson did not return several calls seeking comment about that mileage. Others on the council have a different view of whether they should take a city car to work. Councilman Val Lerch, a property manager, said his concerns about the issue caused him to take a monthly allowance instead. "The minute I started driving to the 20 properties I managed,' he said, "it was beyond the activity of a city car.'