Topeka ? Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Thursday put the brakes on the state’s massive vehicle fleet.

The governor ordered the sale of 739 under-used cars and trucks, a two-year moratorium on most new vehicle purchases, and elimination of the state employee central motor pool. She said the changes would save $8.6 million.

“Previous administrations have overlooked this issue in the past,” Sebelius said during a news conference in a state vehicle parking lot. “But at a time when we need every penny we can scrape together to maintain funding for schools, universities, highways and vital health care and social services, we can no longer look the other way.”

The state vehicle fleet had ballooned to 8,661 trucks, vans, cars, and other vehicles, or about one for every five state employees.

Most officials agreed that was far too many.

Secretary of Administration Howard Fricke said that when the Sebelius administration sought to tackle the issue, it took weeks simply to find out the number of vehicles owned by the state.

Public outcry

Public outcry about the vehicles arose after the Journal-World reported this summer that there was a parking lot filled with 130 new vehicles that were unused and apparently unneeded, and that a 2002 intergovernmental report found that while the state was making budget cuts to education and social services, hundreds of state employees were using state cars to commute when they shouldn’t have been.

Former Gov. Bill Graves declined to act on the report that dealt with state employees using state vehicles for commuting, according to a former Graves Cabinet member. Former Secretary of Administration Joyce Glasscock said in a recent interview that agencies resisted making changes and Graves “was preoccupied and didn’t want to create a lot of disgruntled feelings as he was walking out the door.”

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius announces a moratorium on buying new state vehicles, the auctioning off of under-used vehicles, and the elimination of the state's central motor pool. The announcement Thursday came after a Journal-World story this summer pointed out a large inventory of unused new vehicles in the state motor fleet at a time when state government was experiencing severe budget problems.

Shortly after taking office in January, Sebelius issued an executive order seeking to limit the use of state cars for commuting.

The Sebelius plan

Under Sebelius’ plan to reduce the fleet, vehicles driven less than 12,000 miles per year will be auctioned and under-used cars in the central motor pool will replace higher-mileage vehicles owned by state agencies. Those higher mileage vehicles also will be sold at auction.

State law enforcement agencies generally were exempt from the new restrictions.

The state currently is seeking bids to auction the vehicles.

Sebelius also ordered her Cabinet secretaries to come up with another round of more vehicles to sell, and said the state would increase its mileage reimbursement rate from 22 cents to 36 cents. The move, she said, would reduce the number of state vehicles needed by encouraging employees to use their own vehicles when traveling on state business.

¢ Cash-poor state is car rich (8-10-03)¢ J-W Editorial: Idle vehicles (8-12-03)¢ State vehicle ‘mess’ scrutinized (8-22-03)¢ Graves blamed for car misuse (9-13-03)

Senate President Dave Kerr, R-Hutchinson, said he doubted the savings would be as great as Sebelius, a Democrat, claimed. Kerr has criticized Sebelius in the past for “exaggerating” budget savings.

KU impact

Jim Long, vice provost at Kansas University, said Provost David Shulenburger also ordered a moratorium on purchasing new vehicles while his office reviews the university’s use of state-owned cars. That analysis is expected to be complete in December.

KU has 220 cars in its motor pool. Long noted that was one for every 14 employees on the Lawrence campus, compared with the state average of one for every five employees.

“I believe (KU) has the vehicles necessary to service its mission, but we can continue to find areas for efficiencies, where we can tighten our belt,” Long said.

During the fiscal year ending June 30, KU purchased eight new cars to replace older cars in its fleet. This year, KU will buy four cars.

Long said funding for some cars owned by KU was provided by grants earned by researchers. The rest is provided by departmental budgets. He could not provide a total of the amount KU spent on vehicles in the past few years.

In another budgetary move, Sebelius moved the sale of state surplus property from the Department of Corrections to the Department of Administration.

Staff writer Terry Rombeck contributed to this report.