As the motor pool mechanic in the military service and later in the private sector, It's cheaper to sell a car/truck at the end of the last year of full warranty rather than continue to try and repair the vehicle and make it last an extended period of time. This goes double now that fuel prices are sky high and that newer vehicles tend to have better mileage than the vehicles they are replacing. So please get off this red herring.

As for take home vehicles, I sure do hope the people who are taking home the vehicles are claiming the use of the vehicles as work related compensation. This is a taxable benefit and needs to be reported on your federal income taxes.

Also in this day of government belt tightening, I cannot foresee a legitimate business reason any government employee would need to bring their government vehicle home with them. I would however allow government employees to take home a vehicle if their sole vehicle was in the repair shop as long as the government charge the individual’s insurance company for vehicle rental.

In short, Knox county needs to tighten it’s belt a lot before it asks the residents for any type of tax increases. Right now, the county has an 88 inch waist trying to fit into 32 inch pants. Trim the fat before you rip your pants!

I hope people don't believe only the county is abusing the 24/7 vehicle idea. I see Knoxville Police cars at homes all the time, even saw one in Seymour. If I'm not mistaken, that is in Sevier county! Don't do much traveling, wonder how much of this goes on unnoticed??

Not only do the County Top dogs get take home vehicles but remember, they also get $12,000 to $20,000 in expense money.
Called "work related expense money" so they don't have to pay income tax on it.

What happened in the 70's & 80's ? Every cop had to have their own car. ( 1/2 unmarked . . VERY FEW knows it is a govt. car.)
In the past 1st shift clocked out , 2nd shift used that car. When they clocked out 3rd shift used it , if one. ( 3rd shift was very thin).
They Serviced the cars ,lasted many years. VERY SELDOM bought a new car. If they did it was in the newspaper.
Now new Sheriff , new cars for each cop.Now Don't service. . . wear it out , new car every couple years.
Our small county follows Knox county.
Seen @ Beer Stores , ball fields , boat docks, during & after hours.

Wake up Knox County taxpayers. Take home vehicles are a total waste of monies. Let's not leave out those poor Sheriff's Dept vehicles. I've seen SUV's and Dodge chargers. How many are really needed? Pay them poor employees mileage just like the business world does. I'm sick of all the waste and the better than you attitudes of all the elected officials from Rags to Vandermouth to JJ to CC.

This is in every city / county / State Gov.
Every evening I count 4 County Hiway Pickup Trucks ( Sometimes 2 Dump Trucks) going thru town. How many goes the other way ?.
City Marked Police cars go home two cities away. Two that I know of, one edge of the county. The other the other side of County. Do Not Know about the Unmarked cars.
This needs to be stopped . . . EVERY City, County , State . ALL 50 STATES !!

Wonder who the 7% are? The one's driving the vehicles!!!!

I think that all of the 151 cars should be sold. The mayor and his cronies do not need any cars. Let them buy their own cars and get to
work in their own vehicles just like I have always done. Just look how
much money we could save the county. When you add up the cost of the
vehicles plus the repairs, gas, tires and most of all insurance on all
of the vehicles, I believe that we would be saving close to 4 million
dollars. Guess what, if we got rid of the mayor and all his cronies,
we could probably come up with another million saved. This is such a
waste of the Taxpayers Money.

I am certain that what is done after hours in these vehicles are not monitored, if they couldn't be responsible with their credit cards that were to be tracked, what makes anyone think these vehicles have any kind of tracking for the number of miles or the amount of fuel used is !!!
I say get rid of them all and enforce, cut backs just like we have had to cut back on my budget... I got to stick to a budget why can't they?
here's a great opportunity to add alot of money back to programs that could use it.. I have to put gas in my car to get back and forth why not them.. I am able to do it and make only a portion of what they make..
they are more than compensated for the job they do..for letting this kind of wasteful attitude go on for so long perhaps they should consider giving up some of their compensation any benefits for their lack of doing their JOB.

The number of take home vehicles is unbelievable. Most of these individuals should be like the rest of us and drive their own vehicles. If they are on call that is part of their job responsibilities and they should be compensated for that but to give them a vehicle is absurd. Also, do these employees use these vehicles to go on vacation, to the store, football games, etc. and how is this monitored. My guess would be it is not. The county should sale most of these vehicles and if vehicles are necessary they should consider fuel efficient vehicles instead of SUV's.

There is absolutely no reason for this county to have this many vehicles in its fleet. Its not just the city/county bldg either, its at the Andrew Johnson bldg as well they have them, what a waste of taxpayer money for them to have these on our dime. Give the mayor a small compact fuel efficient car and put the rest up for auction, granted selling them won't bring in much money, but it won't cost us taxpayers anymore either.

I am very disappointed to hear the news about Take Home Cars. Knoxville is surrounded by poor counties with many of us working to put gas in the car, food on the table, and utilities to comfort the family.

I am a retired teacher from Williamson County for 32 years ( outside of Nashville ) and I never had a take home car. ( gov. / state employee )

Nashville, our capitol, is a zero on their count for take home cars and the area has more money than Knoxville, why can't we do the same.

I suggest you park the cars, decrease the insurance and tighten the belt on taxes. Maybe you could allow the employee to purchase the vehicle and allow it to become a personal means of transportation. I have always had to provide my own transportation.

My vote is absolutely a Yes, the Mayor's office has too many take home cars......one is too many.

GET A NEW MAYOR

take the cars out of service they are not needed they paid 2.6 mil but how much gas and maint add to the cost it takes to fill up these cars about 18000.00 for one fill up per week if they fill them 2times a week it is more like 36000.00 per week take that by month is a 144000.00 stop this we are paying for it

This business of ANYONE taking a vehicle home is an example of ARROGANCE on the part of the mayor and his staff. Poor working people cannot afford medicine and groceries, teachers cannot get raises, and gas has gone off the chart in expense. Why should the taxpayers finance a Tahoe, an Explorer or a Ram when they can barely afford to drive their small cars? I am surprised that this kind of abuse continues. All we can do folks is VOTE THESE PEOPLE OUT!!!!!!!!!!! So go do it on or before August 7 and finish the job the next time ANY of these electable officials run for office! The bottom line is that this is OUR fault. Let's clean the government of these rotten exploiters!

Give the mayor a hybrid and junk the rest of them! It is absolutely unnecessary for county workers to be furnished a take home car. Why must it be at their disposal 24/7. Most of us peons furnish our own transport and have been doing it forever without compliant. Ok, give the Mayor a hybrid and let the Sheriff and Police Chief have a drive home, and it would not bother me or my household if the Cops drive their cruisers home (if it does not cause extra vehicles to be purchased). Cut the waste, my household does.

I would be interested to know how many of these employees with take home vehicles have actually been called out after working hours for a county emergency.

Correct me if I am wrong, but Mike Ragsdale gets paid does he not??? I work so that I have a car(paid for and bought by ME)to get to and from work and to get my kids to school. It is absolutely ridiculous that he and his senior staff even have vehicles like that. They should be setting an example by having lower cost, better on the environment type of cars. Let me suggest maybe that they pump some of that money they get in their salary into other peoples gas tank...seeing as how the mayor can "afford" such a luxury vehicle. And as far as the kind of car they should have, maybe a Ford Taurus, or a Toyota Camry, or how about a Hyundai Sonata....having personally owned a Hyundai myself, it is pretty good on gas mileage and they are good looking cars. But hey, thats just a humble woman's opinion....

The county is awash in money wasting vehicles; we common folk have always had to get ourselves to and from work by our own means. Why must Knox county have its royalty driving tax payer furnished vehicles at their disposal. Take all of them away with the exception of the mayor's and the police that can immediately be dispatched from their homes. Take action immediately to correct this mess that has already added the the red-faced garbage of our county and city.

2.6 million dollars is a lot of money to waste on expensive transportation for publicly elected officials who already have excellent salaries. Here's an idea, why don't we give that money to public schools? 54 desperately needed teachers were recently fired due to lack of funds and why don't we use the money to build more schools and remodel the ones we have? Education should be the number one priority for the young people of the future. Let's support them as much as we can...they will be supporting us in 20 years.
Susan

There should not be any take home vehicles what so ever. I'm sick of paying for these type of expenses when i can't even afford groceries for my family.

I FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THIS IS NECESSARY.. IF SURRONDING AREA DON'T HAVE TO RESULT IN THIS WHY DO WE??? THE BIGGER ISSUE IS NOT EVEN THE INITIAL COST OF THESE VEHICLES ALTHOUGH THE AVERAGE COST IS OVER 17,OOO PER VEHICLE.. IS THE REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE AND INSURANCES ON THESE VEHICLES SO THE 2.6 MILLION DOLLARS IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ISSUE HERE.. WHAT HAS BEEN SPENT OVER ALL IN THE TAKE HOME VEHICLES WOULD BE QUITE ALARMING TO THE PUBLIC I AM SURE.

From the facts presented on the 5:00 PM WATE telecast, it would seem the county allows far too many drive-home vehicles. It would be foolish of the county to sell all or most of the "gas guzzlers" all at once, but a policy of purchasing smaller, more efficient vehicles is certainly in order. It is very doubtful many employees really "NEED" a drive-home vehicle, regardless of salary. How many have other sources of income? How many are part-time employees? Grant Rosenberg lives just up the street from me, and the vehicle I see parked by his house most frequently is a large dark blue Ford SUV. An independent audit of the county's policies and procedures would have discovered and reported all this (among other things). Good for Mark Harmon.

It is an absolute disgrace that those in government display such total disregard to our economy and fellow citizens by using these vehicles at the taxpayers expense. These vehicles should be confiscated and sold.

I for one think it is ridiculous that we are paying taxes so the county employees can have a new car. I'm guessing the tax payers money goes to feed these gas hungry beasts too. This is simply absurd. 150 is unbelievable there should be maybe a dozen at the most. There should be absolutely no need for SUVs. There is nothing they could need an SUV for that a minivan or a small pick-up would not suffice for. This just makes me sick!

I THINK IT IS VERY CORRUPT KNOX COUNTY TREATS TAX PAYERS LIKE DIRT THEY SHOULD HAVE TO PROVIDE THERE OWN TRANSPORTATION NO OTHER EMPLOYERS DO IT THEY DONT CARE ITS OUR TAX DOLLARS PAYING FOR IT

i would say 50% sre a good number to be sold.

If they are not paid enough to provide their own vehicle, quit and get a job that pays more money or take the bus. Two million dollars worth of take home vehicles is an outrage but typical of Knox county

Other counties seem to be doing well without having take home vehicles and those that do have them are sensible and use cars that have decent gas mileage. Are gas-guzzling SUVs necessary? I think absolutely not. If these county for some reason feels it is necessary to have these vehicles to drive home, they need to invest in better mileage cars so they are not spending so much of our tax money on gasoline.