BILL ANALYSIS
GOVERNMENT MODERNIZATION, EFFICIENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Senator Liz Figueroa, Chair
2005-2006 Regular Session
SB 902 S
Senator Denham B
Version: February 22, 2005
Hearing Date: April 20, 2005 9
0
Consultant: Vincent Marchand 2
SUBJECT : Office of Fleet Administration.
SUMMARY : States the intent of the Legislature to reform
the Office of Fleet Administration (OFA) of the Department
of General Services (DGS) pursuant to the Bureau of State
Audits Report 2004-113.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires DGS to prescribe rules and regulations
concerning the use of state-owned vehicles, including
prescribing the records and reports to be kept by state
agencies relating to the use of state vehicles so that
misuse can easily be discovered.
2)Requires DGS to administer the provisions of law relating
to state-owned vehicles, provided, however, that it is
the duty of the head or governing body of each state
agency to carry out and enforce the rules and regulations
adopted by DGS with respect to state-owned vehicles.
3)Prohibits the acquisition of motor vehicles by a state
agency until DGS has investigated and established the
necessity of the acquisition. Requires all contracts for
the acquisition of motor vehicles for a state agency to
be made by or under the supervision of DGS.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
(more)
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COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the bill.
According to the author, this bill will be used to
implement reforms and recommendations from an audit the
author requested last year through the Joint Legislative
Audit Committee. According to the author, the audit,
which is scheduled for completion this Spring, will
investigate the fleet of vehicles that DGS owns,
maintains, and makes available for both short-term and
long-term vehicle rental to other state agencies.
2)Request for Audit
Senators Denham, Chesbro and Johnson submitted a request to
the Join Legislative Audit Committee in April of 2004
asking that the following questions be investigated:
Is it cost-effective for California to own a
fleet of thousands of cars, used for both short-term
and long-term lease?
Is it cost-effective to use seven different
garages, or could money be saved by consolidating
the number of garages?
How much money would the state save if the
state no longer owned and maintained the vehicles
under DGS' OFA?
How much money would be saved by selling the
seven parking garages?
Is there an existing accountability mechanism
to ensure that state agencies are accountable?
In its analysis of the audit request, the State Auditor
noted that DGS' fleet office provides statewide
transportation-related services to state employees and
departments such as vehicle pools, repair facilities,
vehicle inspection, commercial car rentals, vehicle
acquisition and disposition, and consultation regarding
automotive management problems. In addition, the OFA
operates seven state garages located in Fresno, Los
Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco,
and Van Nuys.
1)California Performance Review Report on Vehicle
Management
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The Governor's California Performance Review (CPR) found
that the OFA was unable to identify the state agencies
that own more than 25 percent of the state fleet.
According to the CPR, there are an estimated 70,000 to
80,000 pieces of mobile equipment owned by the state of
California, of which approximately 90 percent are
passenger vehicles. Only 11 percent of the fleet is
under the direct control of the OFA, with responsibility
for the remaining 89 percent residing with other state
agencies. The CPR found that the OFA is unable to
determine the exact number and type of vehicles owned by
the state, and that because state agencies have not
accurately reported their vehicle inventories, OFA has
had to categorize 17,978 of the 70,000 vehicles in their
inventory records as "unknown," meaning that they cannot
identify the agency responsible for more than a quarter
of the state fleet. According to the OFA's State Fleet
Handbook, each state agency is required to submit a
report to the OFA at the beginning of each fiscal year
providing information on all vehicles under its control,
but the CPR found that many state agencies do not comply
with this requirement and there are no sanctions for
those that fail to do so.
The CPR recommended, in part, that the Department of Motor
Vehicles conduct an inventory of all state-owned vehicles
and maintain the inventory on an ongoing basis, providing
quarterly reports to DGS.
2)Spot bill?
This bill, which currently only contains intent language,
would normally be considered a spot bill and remain in
the Senate Rules Committee until substantive language was
amended into the bill. While this bill did remain in
Rules Committee after most bills had been referred, the
author wrote a letter to Rules Committee requesting this
bill be referred to a policy committee as an intent
measure, due to the fact that results from the requested
audit would not be available until late spring, which is
after the deadline for policy committees to hear bills.
The author stated in this letter that he is fully
committed to returning this bill back to the policy
committee after the audit is released and amendments have
been made.
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Support:
None on file
Opposition:
None on file
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