The Hartford City Council is considering a plan to ban the use of nearly all take-home city vehicles. This comes after a weekend in which a city department supervisor got in an accident after driving drunk in her city-issued car.
The question of who should have a city car has been around for a while. But it got new attention after the former chief of staff to Mayor Pedro Segarra was arrested for using his city car after he resigned from his job.
Now, the question is even more urgent. That's because, over the weekend, the city's deputy director of public works was arrested for driving under the influence after she got into an accident in her relatively new city car.
Police say they charged Rhonda Moniz-Carroll with several motor vehicle violations and with DUI. They say her car was totaled and that she refused a blood alcohol test. Ken Kennedy is a Hartford city councilman who wants to make it so that only the mayor, the chiefs of fire and police, and a few others at most get city cars 24/7.
"I wish I had done this sooner, in terms of policy, to be quite honest," Kennedy said. "Because it could have avoided this situation."
Kennedy says as many as 50 city cars may now be in use around the clock by employees. The city is doing an audit to come up with a more exact figure. He says the practice of having employees take home their cars is one that began under the administration of former Mayor Eddie Perez.
"I started getting phone calls from constituents about seeing other people who work for the city who have high positions driving vehicles," Kennedy said. "They didn't see the...justification for it. And, quite frankly, I agree with my constituents on that one. I didn't see the justification for it, either. It's too expensive, you get in a car accident in a city vehicle, they're not just going to sue the individual. They're going to sue us."
In a statement, Segarra says he wants to let city auditors finish their work before making a decision on the use of city cars.
