ShawneeDispatch.com

At 3 a.m. July 5, Shawnee Fire Marshal John Mattox left his Shawnee home, headed to the scene of a house fire.

Two hours later, he was out again, this time responding to a report of a building fire. Both incidents turned out to be minor, but as an employee who is on call at all times, he used his city-provided vehicle to respond to both fire calls.

After his normal eight-hour days, Mattox drives the car home in case he is needed at the scene of a fire in his off-hours to serve as a public information officer, safety supervisor and fire investigator. This may happen every night one week, or not at all for the next two weeks.

But the car is only for these calls; marked as a city fire vehicle, Mattox joked he would be pretty conspicuous if he were using it for personal reasons.

"It has all the markings on it - I can't go to the drive-in, because people would know where I'm from," he said.

In Shawnee Mission USD 512, seven employees drive vehicles home from work each night, just in case of emergency, said district spokeswoman Leigh Anne Neal.

"The employees that are authorized to take their district vehicle home are considered to be on-call employees," Neal said. "At any time they could be called back in for emergencies, for weather, or for a fire call or for a police call. They are utilized for commute for business reasons only, not for personal reasons."

In the neighboring De Soto USD 232, no employees are authorized to take district vehicles home, including times of inclement weather, said district spokesman Alvie Cater.

In Shawnee, of 177 city-owned vehicles - 139 of them noncommercial vehicles - 20 are allowed to be used by employees outside of their regular working hours. While some area governments may have employees abusing their privileges to using official vehicles, Shawnee's policy largely has limited this advantage to emergency responders.

In Shawnee, city policy states that use of a city-owned vehicle outside of normal work hours is determined by the city manager, who will consider job requirements, the need for and frequency of after-hours response in that position and the availability of a vehicle.

Department directors are authorized to permit employees temporary use of a city vehicle to and from work. City policy on the use of city-owned vehicles states anyone driving a city-owned vehicle is not permitted to use it for personal errands or activities, private business, pleasure or for secondary employment.

Emergency responders make up the bulk of those who take home vehicles; all those who take vehicles home are expected to respond to incidents from their homes. In the Shawnee Police Department, the command staff members all are provided with cars to take home, which includes one major, three captains and four lieutenants. They currently all live within the city. The department's two motorcycle officers also take their motorcycles home with them.

Additionally, all detectives are allowed to take their cars home if they live within a 10-mile radius of the station, and currently, eight of the 11 detectives take theirs home.

For the Fire Department, only the fire marshal takes home his city vehicle, as he is on call seven days a week to respond to fires and other emergencies.

In the Public Works Department, the field operations manager is allowed to use a four-wheel drive vehicle in the winter months to respond to storms if he gives prior notification to the Public Works director. However, city officials said the field operations manager hasn't requested use of a vehicle for the last several years.

No employees of the Parks and Recreation, Development Services, Finance, Information Technology, Planning or Administrative departments take home vehicles, though the city manager, department directors and the mayor all get vehicle allowances.

Mayor Jeff Meyers receives $5,400 annually; Carol Gonzales, city manager, receives $8,200. Directors of the Information Technology, Finance, Fire, Planning, Development Services, Public Works and Parks and Recreation departments all receive $5,400, while the city clerk/assistant city manager receives a $3,600 allowance.

All of these amounts were the same in the 2007, 2008 and 2009 city budgets. The only vehicle allowance that changed from year to year was for the police chief; it was budgeted at $4,154 in 2007 and $5,500 in 2008 and 2009.

Gonzales said vehicle allowances are determined by each person's job requirements and how much they must be outside of their office.

In Shawnee Mission Schools, employees who take vehicles home include the manager of operations and maintenance, a maintenance supervisor, two operations supervisors, a custodial supervisory, a telecommunications supervisor and a district security employee.

The seven employees live between 3.8 miles and 23.2 miles from work, Neal said. Some use up to 1,095 gallons of gasoline per year and travel up to 16,420 miles per year.