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Transmittal - 12/29/2021ERIN MENDENHALL Mayor OFFICE OF THE MAYOR P.O. BOX 145474 451 SOUTH STATE STREET, ROOM 306 SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84114-5474 WWW.SLCMAYOR.COM TEL 801-535-7704 CITY COUNCIL TRANSMITTAL ______________________________ Date Received: Lisa Shaffer, Chief Administrative Officer Date Sent to Council: TO: DATE: December 21, 2021 FROM: Salt Lake City Council Amy Fowler, Chair Lisa Shaffer, Chief Administrative Officer SUBJECT: An ordinance amending Sections 2.54.030 and 2.54.060 of the Salt Lake City Code Pertaining to the Use of City Owned Motor Vehicles STAFF CONTACTS: Rachel Otto, Mayor’s Office Sara Montoya, Senior City Attorney DOCUMENT TYPE: Ordinance RECOMMENDATION: That the City Council adopt the ordinance. BUDGET IMPACT: Anticipated to be negligible. May result in some increased costs, but will also decrease costs as a result of tighter “personal use” allowance. BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION: In the face of increasing competition for qualified law enforcement officers across the state, as well as feedback from the Police Department that the City’s current take-home vehicle ordinance was a detractor from recruitment, the Mayor’s Office determined earlier this year to examine whether to amend this ordinance. The proposed revision was created in conjunction with the Police Department and Public Services. Below is a brief synopsis of the changes: Limitations on personal use of vehicles: Previously, the ordinance permitted employees to use city-owned vehicles for “reasonable personal use” within Salt Lake County and the employee’s home county. The proposed changes have limited personal use to “reasonable personal use within . . . the employee’s standard commute or related to a public safety officer’s use of the vehicle while actively responsible for callback duty.” The purpose of this change is to better tailor the policy to the intended benefits of taking home a vehicle, Lisa Shaffer (Dec 29, 2021 15:37 MST) 12/29/2021 12/29/2021 ERIN MENDENHALL Mayor OFFICE OF THE MAYOR P.O. BOX 145474 451 SOUTH STATE STREET, ROOM 306 SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84114-5474 WWW.SLCMAYOR.COM TEL 801-535-7704 including the benefit to the City of having public safety officers available for immediate response when on callback duty, without accumulating excessive mileage or permitting excessive personal use of the vehicles. The proposed ordinance includes procedures for establishing the employee’s “standard commute,” and requires employees to first agree, in writing, to comply with the ordinance, limit personal use, maintain the vehicle, and acknowledge that there is no expectation of privacy their use of city vehicles. “Reasonable personal use” will be further defined as per Fleet and Departmental policy. Expanded eligibility radius for permitted take home use: The proposed ordinance expands authorized take home use to any employee residing 60 miles or less from the city limits, an increase from the current ordinance’s limit of 35 miles or less.. Additionally, the proposed change permits exceptions to this radius requirement on a case-by-case basis, with permission of the employee’s department director and the mayor. The primary purpose of this change is to enable the City to recruit new public safety officers, as an increasing number of recruits reside in communities surrounding the City, and public safety agencies in other communities often have robust take home vehicle policies. The previous 35-mile limitation seemed to arbitrarily cut employees living furthest from the city out of the policy (arguably those most benefitted from commuting in a city-owned vehicle). Additionally, this change encourages more equity in the take home policy, as the previous ordinance permitted very broad personal use for employees within Salt Lake County and their home county, while other employees residing just a few miles outside of the limit were not permitted to even commute in a city vehicle, even without personal use. Reporting and enforceability: The proposed ordinance calls for Fleet to maintain a take home vehicle policy and to provide department directors with access to geofencing technology and telemetrics reports, allowing them to audit employees’ vehicle use. The Fleet policy must also set forth procedures to address unauthorized use. These provisions are intended to allow the City to monitor and enforce the terms of the ordinance. Liability Insurance: Utah Code sets forth the insurance coverage a government entity must carry to cover circumstances where a city employee is using a city vehicle outside the scope of employment, with the express or implied consent of the city. The proposed amendments bring the ordinance in line with the State Code minimum insurance requirements. Cleanup: The proposed new ordinance re-structures the authorization provision and removes some categories of authorization for simplification. Emergency circumstances: The changes include new language permitting employees to take home a vehicle when emergency circumstances make it difficult or unsafe for an employee to return a vehicle at the end of their shift. This is intended to address circumstances such as the protests in summer 2020 when public safety officers had to get through demonstrators to gain access to the public safety building to pick up or return their vehicles. This could also address inclement weather situations, such as snow storms, etc. Attachments: A. Legislative Draft B. Ordinance LEGISLATIVE DRAFT SALT LAKE CITY ORDINANCE 1 No. _____ of 2022 2 3 (An ordinance amending Sections 2.54.030 and 2.54.060 of the Salt Lake City Code 4 Pertaining to the Use of City Owned Motor Vehicles) 5 6 An ordinance amending Section 2.54 of the Salt Lake City Code pertaining to the use of city 7 owned motor vehicles. 8 WHEREAS, Chapter 2.54 “City Owned Motor Vehicles” provides certain conditions for the 9 permitted use of city owned vehicles for personal use, including commuting to and from work; and 10 WHEREAS, the Salt Lake City Council finds that updates to the current ordinance are 11 necessary to ensure that the permitted personal use of city owned vehicles is equitable for all Salt Lake 12 City employees as well as reasonably limited to protect Salt Lake City property; and 13 WHEREAS, the Salt Lake City Council further desires to revise the current ordinance to 14 require Salt Lake City employees who are authorized for personal take home use of city vehicles 15 to abide by the liability insurance coverage requirements set forth in Utah Code § 63G-7-802; and 16 NOW, THEREFORE, be it ordained by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah: 17 SECTION 1. Amending Section 2.54.030. Section 2.54.030 of the Salt Lake City Code 18 shall be, and hereby is, amended to read as follows: 19 A.Except as provided in subsection B of this section, nNo motor vehicle owned by the city20 may be taken home by any city employee except under the following circumstances:21 22 1. Authorization to regularly take home a city owned vehicle is granted to a full-time23 employee by the department director and approved by the mayor, they mayor’s chief of24 staff, or his or her designee based on a demonstrated need for such vehicle to be taken 25 home to serve the public interest, which demonstrated need must be based on one of the 26 following criteria:; or 27 28 a. The vehicle is assigned as a qualified take-home vehicle to a sworn and certified29 law enforcement officer of the Salt Lake City police department or an employee 30 of the Salt Lake City fire department (in either case, a "public safety officer") 31 pursuant to the department's take home vehicle policy. Public safety officers shall 32 at all times maintain in their vehicle an article of clothing or equipment that 33 LEGISLATIVE DRAFT clearly identifies them as public safety officers of Salt Lake City to be used in the 34 event of unexpected or off-duty deployment; or 35 36 b. The nature of the employee's work requires immediate response to emergency37 situations, regardless of frequency, that require the use of specific safety or 38 emergency equipment that cannot be reasonably carried in the employee's 39 personal vehicle. 40 41 2. Due to an isolated incident of use when, because of the lateness of the hour or other42 peculiar circumstances, it is impractical or impossible to return such vehicle to city43 custody at the end of a duty shift;. 44 45 3. Due to emergency circumstances, the ability of the employee to access their primary46 location of employment is compromised such that the employee may be unable to 47 reasonably retrieve such vehicle from, or return such vehicle to, city custody. The 48 employee in such circumstance must obtain prior written consent from their department 49 director describing the limited time period during which the employee is authorized to 50 take the vehicle home, along with a description of the circumstances necessitating the 51 temporary authorization; or 52 53 4. The employee has been designated as the director of a city department.54 55 B. Authorization to regularly take home a city owned vehicle pursuant to subsection A1 is56 subject to the following requirementsmay be granted to a full time employee for a57 “demonstrated need” based on at least one of the following criteria :58 59 1. The employee has been designated as the director of a city department.60 2. The vehicle is assigned to a sworn and certified law enforcement officer of the Salt Lake61 City police department or an employee of the Salt Lake City fire department (in either62 case, a “public safety officer”) pursuant to their department’s take home car program63 requirements. Public safety officers shall at all times maintain in their vehicle an article64 of clothing or equipment that clearly identifies them as public safety officers of Salt Lake65 City to be used in the event of unexpected or off duty deployment.66 3. The employee must respond to at least five (5) emergency situations or callbacks to work67 per month.68 4. The nature of the employee’s work requires immediate response to emergency situations,69 regardless of frequency, that require the use of specific safety or emergency equipment70 that cannot be reasonably carried in the employee’s personal vehicle.71 72 5. For vehicles provided pursuant to subsections B2 through B4 of this section, reasonable73 personal use of the take home vehicle is allowed within Salt Lake County and the county74 in which the employee resides. No personal use may be made of the vehicle outside of75 these limits. The amount and nature of personal use shall be established by department76 policy, and shall be a reasonable amount and nature that, as described in that policy, shall77 not accumulate excessive miles on the vehicle.78 1. Prior to receiving authorization, an employee must establish their daily commute79 LEGISLATIVE DRAFT mileage by calculating the shortest possible driving distance from the primary location of 80 employment to the employee’s residence, as evidenced by a commonly available internet 81 program or application that estimates distances using driving directions (the “standard 82 commute”). Each employee will be required to provide documentation of their standard 83 commute. For such employees, reasonable personal use of a take home vehicle is allowed 84 within the employee’s standard commute or related to a public safety officer’s use of the 85 vehicle while actively responsible for callback duty. Such reasonable personal use shall 86 be further defined by department policies, which shall set forth a mileage radius limit 87 from the employee’s residence, to limit excessive mileage and wear and tear incurred on 88 city vehicles. No personal use may be made of the vehicle outside of these limits. Prior to 89 receiving authorization, employees shall agree, in writing, to abide by the provisions of 90 this chapter, to limit take-home use of the vehicle as described herein, to maintain and 91 use the vehicle in a clean, safe, and serviceable manner, and to acknowledge that the 92 employee has no expectation of privacy in their use of any city-owned vehicle. 93 94 2.Fleet management shall provide to the department director a monthlyaccess to reports95 detailing usage, safety data, location, and mileage of city vehicles, as well as access to 96 geofencing monitoring technology, thus enabling the department director to monitor 97 vehicle usage and to determine what constitutes a reasonable accumulation of miles on 98 vehicleswhether employees are exceeding reasonable personal use as defined herein and 99 in department policies. Each department with employees authorized for take home 100 vehicle use shall follow adopted city fleet policies requiring regular audits of the fleet 101 management actual use reports and employees’ acknowledged use and procedures for 102 addressing unauthorized personal use and usage that exceeds the employee’s standard 103 commute or estimated monthly mileage, including procedures for termination of 104 authorization for take home use and disciplinary action. 105 106 3.Travel to and from secondary employment in a city vehicle is prohibited except with107 respect to public safety officers and in that case only if the secondary employer pays a108 fuel surcharge of six dollars ($6.00) per work shift of the public safety officer.109 110 C. 111 1. Employees who have a demonstrated need as set forth inauthorized for take home use112 pursuant to subsection B of this sectionA1 may use city owned motor vehicles on a113 voluntary basis with the knowledge and consent of the appropriate department head, and114 only if such employees make biweekly payments to the city for such use according to the115 following fee schedule:116 117 a.Employees who live within Salt Lake City shall make no payment for the use of118 the vehicle.119 120 b.For those employees living outside of Salt Lake City, each employee shall make a121 biweekly payment to the city in the amount of three dollars ($3.00) per mile based122 upon the distance of the employee’s standard commute from the Salt Lake City123 limits to the employee's homeresidence. Such distance shall be calculated using124 the shortest possible driving distance from the city limits to the residence as125 LEGISLATIVE DRAFT evidenced by a commonly available internet or computer software program that 126 estimates distances using driving directions. The distance calculated by such 127 program shall be rounded to the nearest whole mile by calculating the mileage to 128 the hundredth of a mile and then applying standard rounding practices. An 129 employee who disagrees with the determination of the city regarding that distance 130 calculation may appeal that determination to the employee's department head or 131 the department head's designee, pursuant to a process established by departmental 132 policy. Any department's policy shall require the employee to: 1) provide 133 documentation supporting any disagreement with the distance determination of 134 the city, and 2) describe any action taken by the department regarding the matter. 135 The department shall maintain records regarding the appeal and shall make those 136 records available for audit purposes. 137 138 2. The city council shall reevaluate the fee schedule each year in conjunction with its 139 adoption of the annual city budget. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, 140 department heads, including the chief of the police department and the chief of the fire 141 department, shall not be required to pay the fees imposed by this subsection C. 142 143 3. The mayor shall, by written policy, set forth liability insurance coverage to such 144 employees, which coverage shall be not less than two hundred thousand dollars 145 ($200,000.00) per incident, shall cover bodily injury, death, and property damage and 146 shall be in addition to that required by Utah code sections 31A-22-304 and 63G-7-802. 147 Liability coverage provided by the City for an employee’s authorized personal or off-duty 148 use of city owned vehicles under this subsection is set forth in Utah Code Ann. § 63G-7-149 802 and is limited to the minimum levels required by state law. It is the responsibility of 150 the employee to purchase supplemental insurance coverage for the authorized personal or 151 off-duty use of city vehicles, including coverage for any personal or off-duty use 152 passengers, if applicable, under this subsection. 153 154 D. Except for vehicles provided to department directors pursuant to subsection B1 of this 155 section, under no circumstances shall a city owned vehicle be authorized for take home 156 use for an employee who resides farther than thirty five (35) miles from the city limits, as 157 calculated pursuant to subsection C of this section, regardless of the department in which 158 the employee is employed 159 Except for vehicles provided to department directors pursuant to subsection A4 of this 160 section, any employee whose standard commute exceeds sixty (60) miles from the city 161 limits may only be authorized for take home use of a city owned vehicle with the express 162 permission of the employee’s department director and the mayor or the mayor’s designee. 163 With respect to public safety officers authorized pursuant to subsection A1 of this 164 section, the Chief of Police or Fire Chief may permit city owned vehicles to be secured at 165 a police station or fire department located within a sixty (60) mile radius from the city 166 limits if a determination is made that such arrangement is necessary and reasonable . 167 168 E. Except as provided for herein, under no circumstances shall a city vehicle be used for any 169 purpose other than city business, to promote a city interest, or for any use authorized by 170 the mayor or the mayor’s designee. 171 LEGISLATIVE DRAFT 172 SECTION 2. Amending Section 2.54.060. Section 2.54.060 of the Salt Lake City Code shall 173 be, and hereby is, amended to read as follows: 174 Any violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be grounds for suspension or dismissal 175 from employment, but shall not be considered a criminal offense , except as set forth in Utah Code 176 Ann. § 76-8-402. 177 178 SECTION 3. Effective Date. This Ordinance shall become effective on the date of its first 179 publication. 180 Passed by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah this __ day of ____________, 2022. 181 182 183 CHAIRPERSON 184 ATTEST: 185 186 187 ______________________________ 188 CITY RECORDER 189 190 191 Transmitted to Mayor on . 192 Mayor’s Action: _______Approved. _______Vetoed. 193 194 195 196 MAYOR 197 198 199 ______________________________ 200 CITY RECORDER 201 202 (SEAL) 203 204 205 Bill No. ________ of 2022. 206 Published: ______________. 207 208 209 SALT LAKE CITY ORDINANCE No. _____ of 2022 (An ordinance amending Sections 2.54.030 and 2.54.060 of the Salt Lake City Code Pertaining to the Use of City Owned Motor Vehicles) An ordinance amending Section 2.54 of the Salt Lake City Code pertaining to the use of city owned motor vehicles. WHEREAS, Chapter 2.54 “City Owned Motor Vehicles” provides certain conditions for the permitted use of city owned vehicles for personal use, including commuting to and from work; and WHEREAS, the Salt Lake City Council finds that updates to the current ordinance are necessary to ensure that the permitted personal use of city owned vehicles is equitable for all Salt Lake City employees as well as reasonably limited to protect Salt Lake City property; and WHEREAS, the Salt Lake City Council further desires to revise the current ordinance to require Salt Lake City employees who are authorized for personal take home use of city vehicles to abide by the liability insurance coverage requirements set forth in Utah Code § 63G-7-802; and NOW, THEREFORE, be it ordained by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah: SECTION 1. Amending Section 2.54.030. Section 2.54.030 of the Salt Lake City Code shall be, and hereby is, amended to read as follows: A. No motor vehicle owned by the city may be taken home by any city employee except under the following circumstances: 1. Authorization to regularly take home a city owned vehicle is granted to a full-time employee by the department director and approved by the mayor, they mayor’s chief of staff, or his or her designee based on a demonstrated need for such vehicle to be taken home to serve the public interest, which demonstrated need must be based on one of the following criteria: a. The vehicle is assigned as a qualified take-home vehicle to a sworn and certified law enforcement officer of the Salt Lake City police department or an employee of the Salt Lake City fire department (in either case, a "public safety officer") pursuant to the department's take home vehicle policy. Public safety officers shall at all times maintain in their vehicle an article of clothing or equipment that clearly identifies them as public safety officers of Salt Lake City to be used in the event of unexpected or off-duty deployment; or b. The nature of the employee's work requires immediate response to emergency situations, regardless of frequency, that require the use of specific safety or emergency equipment that cannot be reasonably carried in the employee's personal vehicle. 2. Due to an isolated incident of use when, because of the lateness of the hour or other peculiar circumstances, it is impractical or impossible to return such vehicle to city custody at the end of a duty shift; 3. Due to emergency circumstances, the ability of the employee to access their primary location of employment is compromised such that the employee may be unable to reasonably retrieve such vehicle from, or return such vehicle to, city custody. The employee in such circumstance must obtain prior written consent from their department director describing the limited time period during which the employee is authorized to take the vehicle home, along with a description of the circumstances necessitating the temporary authorization; or 4. The employee has been designated as the director of a city department. B. Authorization to take home a city owned vehicle subject to subsection A1 is subject to the following requirements: 1. Prior to receiving authorization, an employee must establish their daily commute mileage by calculating the shortest possible driving distance from the primary location of employment to the employee’s residence, as evidenced by a commonly available internet program or application that estimates distances using driving directions (the “standard commute”). Each employee will be required to provide documentation of their standard commute. For such employees, reasonable personal use of a take home vehicle is allowed within the employee’s standard commute or related to a public safety officer’s use of the vehicle while actively responsible for callback duty. Such reasonable personal use shall be further defined by department policies, which shall set forth a mileage radius limit from the employee’s residence, to limit excessive mileage and wear and tear incurred on city vehicles. No personal use may be made of the vehicle outside of these limits. Prior to receiving authorization, employees shall agree, in writing, to abide by the provisions of this chapter, to limit take-home use of the vehicle as described herein, to maintain and use the vehicle in a clean, safe, and serviceable manner, and to acknowledge that the employee has no expectation of privacy in their use of any city-owned vehicle. 2. Fleet management shall provide to the department director access to reports detailing usage, safety data, location, and mileage of city vehicles, as well as access to geofencing monitoring technology, thus enabling the department director to monitor vehicle usage and to determine whether employees are exceeding reasonable personal use as defined herein and in department policies. Each department with employees authorized for take home vehicle use shall follow adopted city fleet policies requiring regular audits of the fleet management actual use reports and employees’ acknowledged use and procedures for addressing unauthorized personal use and usage that exceeds the employee’s standard commute or estimated monthly mileage, including procedures for termination of authorization for take home use and disciplinary action. 3. Travel to and from secondary employment in a city vehicle is prohibited except with respect to public safety officers and in that case only if the secondary employer pays a fuel surcharge of six dollars ($6.00) per work shift of the public safety officer. C. 1. Employees authorized for take home use pursuant to subsection A1 may use city owned motor vehicles only if such employees make biweekly payments to the city for such use according to the following fee schedule: a. Employees who live within Salt Lake City shall make no payment for the use of the vehicle. b. For those employees living outside of Salt Lake City, each employee shall make a biweekly payment to the city in the amount of three dollars ($3.00) per mile based upon the distance of the employee’s standard commute from the Salt Lake City limits to the employee's residence. 2. The city council shall reevaluate the fee schedule each year in conjunction with its adoption of the annual city budget. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, department heads, including the chief of the police department and the chief of the fire department, shall not be required to pay the fees imposed by this subsection C. 3. Liability coverage provided by the City for an employee’s authorized personal or off-duty use of city owned vehicles under this subsection is set forth in Utah Code Ann. § 63G-7- 802 and is limited to the minimum levels required by state law. It is the responsibility of the employee to purchase supplemental insurance coverage for the authorized personal or off-duty use of city vehicles, including coverage for any personal or off-duty use passengers, if applicable, under this subsection. D. Except for vehicles provided to department directors pursuant to subsection A4 of this section, a city owned vehicle may only be authorized for take home use for an employee whose standard commute exceeds sixty (60) miles from the city limits with the express permission of the employee’s department director and the mayor or the mayor’s designee. With respect to public safety officers authorized pursuant to subsection A1 of this section, the Chief of Police or Fire Chief may permit city owned vehicles to be secured at a police station or fire department located within a sixty (60) mile radius from the city limits if a determination is made that such arrangement is necessary and reasonable. E. Except as provided for herein, under no circumstances shall a city vehicle be used for any purpose other than city business, to promote a city interest, or for any use authorized by the mayor or the mayor’s designee. SECTION 2. Amending Section 2.54.060. Section 2.54.060 of the Salt Lake City Code shall be, and hereby is, amended to read as follows: Any violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be grounds for suspension or dismissal from employment, but shall not be considered a criminal offense, except as set forth in Utah Code Ann. § 76-8-402. SECTION 3. Effective Date. This Ordinance shall become effective on the date of its first publication. Passed by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah this __ day of ____________, 2022. CHAIRPERSON ATTEST: ______________________________ CITY RECORDER Transmitted to Mayor on . Mayor’s Action: _______Approved. _______Vetoed. MAYOR ______________________________ CITY RECORDER (SEAL) Bill No. ________ of 2022. Published: ______________.