To keep county cars, Richland employees have to behave – one drove 112 mph

Richland County employees who drive county vehicles have been speeding, says county administrator Gerald Seals, and he’s cracking down.

An internal survey using the vehicles’ GPS found that 154 employees, including supervisors and department directors, habitually sped during a recent 90-day period, Seals said in memos to employees outlining the crackdown.

One worker exceeded the speed limit 1,300 times, and another was clocked at 112 mph, Seals wrote in June 23 memos that also criticized a “history of lax oversight” of vehicle take-home privilege.

The upset administrator has ordered three-times-a-year random drug tests, written reprimands and driver training classes and has said he will fire the worst violators.

“Speeding in a county vehicle is a violation of SC law and county policy,” Seals wrote in undated form letters to individual employees who had been ordered to attend a July 2 meeting at the Decker Center to discuss the problem.

The letters note that Seals is aware that some county employees consider speeding to be no “big deal” and that some have lobbied County Council members against the crackdown.

“Such rationalizations and lobbying by employees that those who speed in county vehicles should not be held accountable manifest attitudes that are cavalier and disdainful towards our colleagues and our bosses, the residents of Richland County,” Seals wrote.

He reminds workers that their employment and the use of county vehicles are privileges. “How dare any of us abuse those privileges,” Seals wrote.

Efforts by The State newspaper Monday to discuss the changes with Seals were unsuccessful. But in a statement Seals said, “When an employee gets behind the wheel of a county-owned vehicle, that employee is representing this entire organization and the taxpayers of Richland County. Therefore, speeding ... in a county-owned vehicle will not be tolerated.”

Still, many unanswered questions remain, such as how many employees were caught speeding, how many employees drive county cars home and have any employees lost their jobs since the crackdown?

The State reached out to seven of the 11 Richland County Council members contacted by the newspaper; one responded for this article.

In two June 23 memos to employees and council members, Seals said:

▪  Employees who drive 6 mph above the posted speed limit face losing county driving privileges, loss of take-home vehicles, reprimands, suspensions, last-chance agreements, job reassignments or being fired.

▪  Take-home and after-hours vehicles have been restricted and regulated, and the policies have been revised.

▪  All county vehicles will be equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System) that will allow them to be tracked and monitored.

▪  The 154 habitual offenders – those caught speeding four or more times during 90 days – will meet face-to-face with Seals and their department heads, who will then work with each to discuss the “accuracy of the information” and to provide the county with written details about each offense.

Sheriff Leon Lott, whose department is not covered by the crackdown because Lott is an elected official, said he supports Seals’ action.

“I totally agree with that,” Lott said Monday. “We have been doing this for years. To drive a sheriff’s department car is a privilege. It’s not a right.”

If a deputy speeds without turning on the vehicle’s blue light and/or siren, they are violating department policy, Lott said. They can be disciplined, lose their cruiser or worse.

He said he has pulled over his own deputies and allowed the department to hear the encounter on police radios. “Usually, that gets their attention pretty well the first time,” Lott said.

Councilman Jim Manning, whose district includes mostly the Northeast Richland area, has questions about what Seals has done.

“It comes across more like, ‘You didn’t know we were looking, and we gotcha,’” the District 8 councilman said. “The consequences come across as very harsh. I’m not sure the penalties fit the crime.”

Manning is the only one of a majority of council member who responded to The State newspaper’s inquiries about the crackdown. Others contacted are chairwoman Joyce Dickerson, senior member Paul Livingston, newly elected members Chip Jackson and Dalhi Myers as well as veteran members Greg Pearce and Seth Rose.

Seals’ reference to disregarding speed limits as being evidence that employees are cavalier or disdainful opens the door to them being disciplined just for their views, Manning said. “I think I could be written up for showing disdain.”

Substance abuse tests of violators will be done randomly for a year, Seals wrote.

But Manning said the administrator’s language refers to “a drug test and a sobriety test at least three times during the next year.” Manning said he reads that as six tests in a year because a sobriety test can relate to counting-backward-from-10 field tests.

Manning said he has many unanswered questions about Seals’ action. “There’s still a lot of stuff I’m trying to learn about this,” such as is the cost of the crackdown and whether the county’s GPS system is sophisticated enough to distinguish when speed limits change so it can determine when an employee is speeding.

The councilman stopped short of calling the administrator’s action an overreaction. “But it is an overreach. It’s only been brought to us (council) through administrative emails and memos.

“It’s not been on an agenda,” Manning said. “It’s not something we asked for.”