Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Hypocrites: An update



















The Department of the Environment still hasn't responded to my question about how city departments are complying with the 2010 fleet reduction ordinance. But that's apparently now a moot question, since the city has transferred management of the city's vehicles to the City Administrator. From a June 10 Budget Analyst memo to the Board of Supervisors:

In 2010, the Board of Supervisors adopted the Healthy Air and Clean Transportation Program (HACTO). The legislation required each department to remove from service up to five percent of the department’s City‐owned total number of non‐safety, cars and light duty trucks each year over a five‐year period. It also required the removal of City‐owned vehicles older than 12 years of age, beginning no later than July 1, 2015, and continuing each year thereafter. If the Director of the Department of the Environment found that such vehicles are necessary for departmental operations, then the Director of Environment could issue a waiver for the vehicle reduction requirements.

To‐date, 23 out of 38 departments are considered to be HACTO compliant, meaning that they have either met their vehicle reduction requirements or have received waivers for vehicle reductions from the Department of the Environment, while 15 departments have not complied with the requirements of HACTO. Non‐compliant departments had 2,143 vehicles eligible for reduction in 2010. The 15 departments which have not complied with HACTO have collectively requested 828 vehicle reduction waivers. To date, the non‐compliant departments have only reduced 177 vehicles, or 8 percent of the 2,143 vehicles (emphasis added).

Rob's comment:

Hence, enforcement of HATCO is now up to the City Administrator, and questions about how city departments are complying must be directed to that department. Not clear why the Department of the Environment couldn't just tell me that. Maybe they're sore about this post earlier this year; maybe it was just routine bureaucratic incompetence. 

That the "non-compliant" city departments have almost 2,000 vehicles suggests that the city's fleet is a lot bigger than the numbers in the graphic above, which was compiled by the Examiner way back in 2013 (SF's goal of taking its cars off the road hits speed bump)

It would be good to know exactly how many vehicles the city has. Maybe the City Administrator will be so kind as to tell us.

Labels: , ,