Governor’S Order Focuses On State Vehicles

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne advised a key legislative committee on Monday that he is proposing an executive order mandating agencies to develop management plans for state vehicles.

Administration Budget Director Darrell Manning told the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee that the order would provide “the framework for information to be readily available to the governor, Legislature, agencies and the public.”

Manning’s letter, also signed by Legislative Budget Office Supervisor Jeff Youtz, essentially incorporates a directive issued in late 1998 by former Gov. Phil Batt in response to a critical report from the committee staff.

That report suggested that state agencies were not effectively using $42 million worth of vehicles, based on an assessment of the mileage put on them in a year. In fact, it found that between mid-1996 and mid-1997, 94 of the 3,245 state-owned passenger vehicles were not used at all and hundreds of others were driven less than 3,000.