OIG No. 21-24: Inspection Report of SunPass Concerning Take-Home City Vehicle No. 14401Joseph M. Centorino, Inspector General
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
PROJECT:
PERIOD:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Commission
Joseph Centorino, Inspector General
June 11, 2021
AVLS and SunPass Inspection Report Concerning Take-Home City Vehicle
Number 14401
OIG No. 21- 24
January 27, 2020 through January 29, 2021
Background
Approved City employees, typically consisting of Managers, Assistant Directors, and higher job
classifications, frequently receive either car allowances or take-home vehicles as part of their
compensation packages. Car allowances represent a fixed amount in employees' biweekly
paychecks for the business use of their personal vehicles to help cover the costs of fuel, wear-
and-tear, tires, repairs, etc. Take-home vehicles are City-owned or leased vehicles assigned to
authorized employees at the City Manager's discretion for work-related travel.
Employees with take-home vehicles are ineligible for a car allowance and are liable for at-fault
collisions occurring outside the course and scope of their employment, which includes traveling
to and from the worksite. These City vehicles may only be driven for personal use with written
authorization from the City Manager, which is to be filed in the employee's personnel folder.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) determined through a January 2021 review of the Munis
system (the City's enterprise resource planning system), that there were a total of 49 employees
receiving biweekly car allowances ranging from a low of $57.69 ($125.00 per month) to a high of
$369.23 ($800.00 per month). There were sixteen employees, outside of the Police and Fire
Department, driving take-home vehicles equipped with an Automated Vehicle Location System
(AVLS).
An AVLS is a geographic positioning system that tracks and reports vehicle/equipment activity
including but not limited to, location, speed and course of direction. AVLS may be installed in any
City-owned or controlled vehicle and/or equipment at any time without providing notification. The
City Commission, through the adoption of Resolution No. 2018-30523, authorized the City
Manager to execute an agreement for the purchase of Trackstar International, Inc. (Trackstar),
AVLS hardware, related software, and services for a period of two years, subject to and contingent
upon an appropriation of funds for the second and third year.
Trackstar's software offers a Retro Geo Fence, which allows City Management to go back in time
to see which vehicles were in a certain area at a given time, rather than running reports for all
City vehicles at a given date and time. Additionally, it works with a wide range of AVLS hardware
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vendors, including: Sierra Wireless, Cradle Point, Airlink, Telenav, and CalAmp (the City's current
devices). Consequently, designated City personnel can generate various system reports for any
period to determine whether vehicles' engines were running, their locations, and whether
designated speed limits were exceeded and by how much.
All City employees who drive City-owned or leased vehicles must comply with Citywide Procedure
No. FL.01.01, issued in June 2014, entitled "Automatic Vehicle/Equipment Location System
(AVLS) Procedure" and Citywide Procedure No. HR.03.01, updated in November 2019, entitled
"City Vehicle Assignment, Operation and Maintenance."
Inspection
The OIG initiated an inspection analysis of mileage accumulated on vehicle number 14401,
assigned to the City's Sanitation Division Director since his January 2020 hiring, and identified
significant deviations from the stated Citywide Procedures. Because this activity could be
construed to violate Section 2-11.1 of the Miami-Dade County Code of Ethics, the Inspector
General notified the County Ethics Commission pursuant to Section 2-276(d)(8)(b) of the City of
Miami Beach Code. Following a discussion of the matter with the Commission Advocate, it was
agreed that this matter would be best addressed administratively rather than through Ethics
Commission action.
The OIG used estimates and averages to quantify the financial impact of the Sanitation Division
Director's actions to the City as the actual costs are unknown. The identified deficiencies relating
solely to take-home vehicle number 14401 are listed in the points below, and are quantified, when
possible:
1. Citywide Procedure No. HR.03.01 (IV)(7) states, "Use of SunPass is restricted to the
business use of the vehicle. SunPass may not be used for access to the Express Lanes
or any toll road for travel to and from home or during any personal use of the vehicle, when
such use is authorized. If use of a toll road is used for commuting. The City SunPass
should be disabled and a personal SunPass used for commuting or personal use, when
authorized." Vehicle number 14401's Sun Pass records showed that the City paid a total
of $714.12 in toll charges from January 27, 2020 through January 29, 2021, as displayed
in the following table.
Number of Tolls Paid Tolls Paid (%aae) Tolls Paid (Dollars)
Weekdays 727 91.45% $640.05
Weekends 68 8.55% $74.07
Total 795 100.00% $714.12
Although OIG staff had no means of determining how much, if any of these charges, were
incurred due to work-related travel, a review of the corresponding Sun Pass charges found
that most were related to the Sanitation Division Director's daily commute between his
Boca Raton residence and Miami Beach. Additional SunPass charges were routinely
incurred for frequent visits to a Lake Worth address.
Review of all 795 SunPass charges determined that 793 were invoiced a total of $712.80
by the Florida Turnpike Enterprise (99. 75%) and were most likely directly related to his
daily commute to work and/or traveling to Lake Worth. The remaining two (.25%) charges
totaling $1.32 were billed by the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority.
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The following table shows the number of monthly SunPass charges that were incurred on
days that the vehicle assigned to the Sanitation Division Director did not travel to Miami
Beach. More specifically, there were a total of 39 weekdays (Monday through Friday) and
21 weekend days (Saturday or Sunday) where vehicle number 14401 incurred toll charges
of $122.81, but was not driven to Miami Beach.
Month/Year Weekdavs Weekends Number of Tolls Toll Charges
January 2020 o o o $0.00
February 2020 1 o 2 $2.58
March 2020 2 2 9 $9.55
April 2020 1 3 6 $7.74
May 2020 5 2 13 $16.77
June 2020 o 1 2 $2.58
July 2020 1 o 1 $1.07
August 2020 6 3 13 $14.81
September 2020 1 1 3 $3.87
October 2020 4 1 8 $10.32
November 2020 1 3 7 $9.03
December 2020 12 1 24 $30.52
January 2021 5 4 11 $13.97
Total 39 21 99 $122.81
Finally, there were 28 SunPass charges incurred between 9:00pm and 3:00am, including
two on a Saturday and two on a Sunday. The latest Florida Turnpike toll charge was
incurred at 2:49am at the Lake Worth exit on Saturday December 12, 2020. The fact that
it occurred on a weekend without any known emergency and the late hour of the charge
raises concerns about whether it was work-related.
Sanitation Division Director's Summarized Response (SunPass):
The Sanitation Division Director stated in an April 9, 2021 email that it was his
understanding from the time he began with the City, until very recently, that the SunPass
use was included with the use of his vehicle, similar to what the Police and Fire
Departments have, since he is a 24 hour/7 day a week on-call essential employee with
work operations seven days a week. In addition, he stated in the email that he repeatedly
drove to Lake Worth to care for a family member with a medical condition, which was part
of the reason for the additional Sun Pass tolls, mileage and fuel consumption (see finding
#2). He believed he could always use his City-owned take-home vehicle on these trips,
since at any moment's notice, he might need to respond to a situation, including hurricane
emergencies.
The Sanitation Division Director also provided a September 15, 2020 email from his
supervisor, then Assistant Public Works Department Director Jay Fink, stating that the
SunPass was part of the take-home vehicle package, and all associated tolls should be
billed to the City. Therefore, he believes that the $712.80 incurred for use of the City's
SunPass should not have to be reimbursed to the City.
QIG's Response (SunPass):
When a City employee is assigned a take-home vehicle, it is standard practice to be given
Citywide Procedure No. HR.03.01, detailing the permitted activities, along with other
important paperwork. Citywide Procedure No. HR.03.01 regulates that a personal
SunPass be used both for commuting and personal use. Although the position of
Sanitation Division Director may be an essential one, and the possibility exists that
emergencies may arise during non-working hours, OIG's review of the Trackstar software
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and Sun Pass data did not identify any after-hour emergencies during the January 27, 2020
through January 29, 2021 period, which, therefore would not have changed OIG's
SunPass calculations.
In addition, the referenced email from the former Assistant Public Works Department
Director was dated September 15, 2020, or approximately eight months after the
Sanitation Division Director's hire date. Although verbally requested in Mr. Kaine's April
8, 2021 Microsoft Team meeting with the OIG, no prior or additional emails were furnished
supporting the Sanitation Division Director's position. Also, OIG's attempts via email to
gain further clarification from the City's former Assistant Public Works Director were
unsuccessful.
The OIG points out that the Assistant Public Works Director's email is incorrect and
contradicts Citywide Procedure No. HR.03.01 (IV)(?). When questions were raised about
the usage of the City SunPass for commuting in September 2020 within the Sanitation
Division, another Assistant Director opted to immediately disconnect his City Sun Pass and
begin using his personal SunPass, according to another email in the same email string
referenced by Mr. Kaine on September 15, 2020.
Lastly, the Sanitation Division Director confirmed in the April 8, 2021 Microsoft Teams
conversation that he also owns a personal vehicle. The OIG contends that this personal
vehicle should have been used to drive from his Boca Raton residence to Lake Worth to
care for a family member, which is a personal matter. If an emergency call did arise where
he needed to promptly drive to the City, he should have driven his personal vehicle back
to Boca Raton, to change vehicles and drive the City-owned vehicle to Miami Beach.
2. Citywide Procedure No. HR.03.01 (lll)(B) states, "Take-home vehicles may only be used
for personal use with written authorization from the City Manager. Such authorization will
be filed in the employee's personnel folder." The City's Human Resources Director
confirmed that the Sanitation Division Director did not have such authorization from the
City Manager to drive the assigned take-home vehicle for personal use. Consequently,
vehicle number 14401 should have been driven only for work-related purposes, including
his daily commute to and from his Boca Raton residence, during the reviewed period.
Sanitation Division Director's daily commute back and forth between his Boca Raton
residence and his Miami Beach office was 101.2 miles (rounded to 101 miles). A review
of Trackstar's data found that vehicle number 14401 was driven a total of 4,034.5 miles
on days where the vehicle was not driven to Miami Beach. An additional 4,979.30 miles
were attributed to the days that the vehicle was driven to Miami Beach in excess of the
amount attributable to the 101 round trip miles.
In total, Trackstar reported that vehicle number 14401 was driven 25,942.60 miles from
January 27, 2020 through January 29, 2021, which was 9,013.80 (4,034.50 + 4,979.30)
more miles than required for approved work-related purposes. However, most likely some
of that mileage was accrued for work-related purposes, so OIG staff opted to focus solely
on the additional fuel consumption incurred from the trips to Lake Worth, FL, as they were
unquestionably related to personal matters and were not work-related.
Review of the Trackstar system data showed that the Sanitation Division Director made
93 separate trips to Lake Worth, FL for personal reasons from January 27, 2020 through
January 29, 2021 in City-owned vehicle number 14401. The Google Maps website was
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used to determine that the distance from his Boca Raton residence, north to Lake Worth,
is 27.1 miles or approximately 54 miles round trip. Consequently, it was calculated that
5,022 nonwork-related miles (93 trips x 54 miles) were accumulated by vehicle number
14401.
The City's Fleet Management Assistant Director provided a report of vehicle number
14401's gasoline purchases during the January 27, 2020 through January 29, 2021
period. Using this data, OIG staff calculated that the City fuel cost averaged $1. 79 per
gallon, and it was assumed that the personal trips to Lake Worth occurred uniformly
throughout the period. Furthermore, the wwww .fueleconomy.gov website states that a
3.5L, 6-cylinder engine 2014 Explorer's averages 21 miles per gallon combined for
City/highway driving or 17 in the City and 24 on the highway. Assuming 21 miles per
gallon average for vehicle number 14401, OIG staff calculated that an additional $768 in
fuel was consumed ((5,022 miles/21 average miles per gallon) x $1.79 average gasoline
cost per gallon = $428.07).
In sum, it is recommended that the Sanitation Division Director reimburse the City a total
of $1,140.87, $428.07 for the additional fuel consumed, plus $712.80 in SunPass charges.
The OIG is aware that, arguably, the accumulation of mileage on vehicle number 14401
may have affected the value of the vehicle due to depreciation, but has elected not to
make that issue part of its reimbursement calculations.
Administrative Action Regarding Take-Home Vehicle Policies
The noted deficiencies concerning vehicle number 14401 were communicated on February 1,
2021 to an Assistant City Manager, so that corrective action could be initiated. The City
Administration promptly discussed these issues with the employee and opted to review the entire
take-home vehicle procedures for all City employees, including those in the Police and Fire
Department. As a result, the following improvements were implemented according to their
February 25, 2021 email:
• The Human Resources Department (H.R.) will now be the beginning of the workflow on
matters involving take-home vehicles. Previously, responsibility was shared with the
operating departments, the Fleet Management Division and H.R. Going forward, all
assignment of take-home vehicles will occur at the time of hire, where the operating
department will advise H.R. at the beginning of employment. This will assure that all
forms, policy distribution and authorizations are obtained from the first day of employment
and all documents will be stored in H.R. For employees who are provided with a take-
home vehicle after hire, that request will initiate in H.R.
• Most take-home vehicles are in the Police Department. Many years ago, the Miami Beach
Fraternal Order of Police, William Nichols Lodge No. 8 (FOP) advised their members not
to sign the forms, as take-home vehicles are part of the collective bargaining
agreement. Recent discussions were held with the FOP attorney to determine the basis
of their objection to the documentation. As a result, a slight modification was made to the
form concerning the usage of vehicles for off-duty details, which the FOP now agrees to
sign. Off-duty details are scheduled and sanctioned by the Police Department
Management Team.
• SunPass responders will no longer be placed in take-home vehicles by the City except
for Police Department vehicles as they are provided a SunPass by the State at no
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charge. For all other vehicles, if a SunPass is desired by the driver, it will be purchased
by the driver and billed directly to the driver. If the use of a toll road or express lane is
required for official City business (not including normal commuting), the employee will
submit a request for reimbursement with appropriate justification. All old City SunPass
invoices will be audited to the maximum SunPass record retention, and employees will
reimburse the City for any non-City business incurred charges.
The OIG is in agreement with these administrative policy improvements, and commends
the City Administration for implementing them.
Update
The Sanitation Division Director agreed to reimburse the City a total of $1,140 in a June 3, 2021
email to the Human Resources Director. A payment plan was agreed to by H.R whereby the
balance would be repaid in full upon the receipt of eleven monthly payments. In conclusion, the
OIG would like to thank all the parties involved for their cooperation during this process and for
the proactive approach by the City Administration to initiate welcomed improvements.
M. Centorino, Inspector General
eewe@ by;
[
Daté
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Date
ty Chief Auditor
cc: Alina T. Hudak, City Manager
Eric Carpenter, Assistant City Manager
Bradford Kaine, Sanitation Division Director
Adrian Morales, Property Management Department Director
Javier Del Rio, Fleet Management Division Assistant Director
Michael Smith, Human Resources Department Director
OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, City of Miami Beach
1130 Washington Avenue, 6 Floor, Miami Beach, FL 33139
Tel: 305.673.7020 • Fax: 305.587.2401 • Hotline: 786.897.111I
Email: CityofMiamiBeachOIG@miamibeachfl.gov
Website: www.mbinspectorgeneral.com
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