Proposed Ordinance - 5/3/2022SALT 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: ______________.
Approved as to Form:
Salt Lake City Attorney’s Office
By: ____________________________
Sara Montoya, Senior City Attorney