Minute with the Mayor

Question:  There has been some talk of the city putting GPS devices on all their vehicles, is this true and why?

Answer: The short answer is yes.  The city board of alderman voted to have the GPS tracking devices on all city equipment and vehicles. 

There were several reasons why this decision was made to have the GPS devices installed.  One was to keep up with our equipment and vehicles that we have on the road and job sites.  The department heads have already seen how useful it is to be able to know where one of our employees is on call that has been called out to the job for an emergency repair of some sort.

Another reason is that some of the data showed that once installed on the vehicles, the gas consumed seemed to lower.  We felt like in this day and time with gas prices so high, it is in the city’s best interest to cut costs when we can.  I do not take it lightly knowing we are spending the taxpayers’ dollars, and we must be attentive to saving when and where we can.

We are not sitting and staring at a screen trying to spy on our employees.  We, (the mayor and city aldermen) felt like this is a good thing to have to help monitor our needs for the year.  We are very early in the process and have already had some significant savings to this point in time.

Be safe out there, and finish strong.