"Our fleet has grown, and we've added deputies, and the price is going up," said George Forman, chief financial officer for the sheriff's office. "Everybody is feeling the pinch."

Some of the increased gasoline use is due to a take-home vehicle policy that allows 1,100 deputies and 99 civilians to use their assigned cars to commute to work and run errands. Use of the cars for out-of-county travel is not authorized unless the deputy lives in another county.

But if they accept a take-home car, deputies must agree to keep the dispatch radio on and carry a portable radio. If they witness an emergency, they are required to provide aid and wait at the scene for an on-duty deputy.

For the privilege of a take-home car, deputies pay $45 a month in payroll deductions and report the value of the personal use on their income tax returns. The charge for deputies is the same even if the car is used to commute daily from as far away as Fort Pierce or La Belle. They can use the cars after work, on weekends or going to off-duty jobs using county gasoline.

Deputies who live outside the county once paid a double fuel surcharge, but the extra charge was removed during union contract talks two years ago.

Take-home cars for civilian employees are even cheaper, at $20 a month. The fee has not changed for at least 10 years, while gasoline prices have more than doubled. The cost for deputies rose $5 a month last year, according to their collective bargaining agreement.

The fees employees pay offset the sheriff's fuel budget by more than $500,000 a year, according to the sheriff's budget.

Still, Bradshaw said he plans to review the fees in light of higher gasoline prices.

"We are going to revisit the amount that everyone pays," he said. "The price of gasoline is going up considerably."

A midsize car driven 10,000 miles a year costs about $10,280 a year in expenses including financing, gasoline and insurance, according to the American Automobile Association.

Nine years ago, Sheriff Bob Neumann ruled that some of the cars were unjustified perks. He yanked take-home cars from 19 civilians holding office jobs and from corrections lieutenants assigned to jails. The car privileges were restored after Neumann left office.

Today, all 27 corrections lieutenants have assigned vehicles, as do civilian managers who work in accounting, insurance and the motor pool's body shop.

Nearly all sheriff's offices in the state have take-home cars for employees. The Palm Beach County's sheriff's policy is more liberal than those in general county government.

Take-home cars assigned to Palm Beach County employees must be considered necessary for the job position and cannot be used for personal errands.

"County government has reduced the number of take-homes to those who are on-call for emergencies," said county fleet manager Douglas Weichman. "There are really no perk-mobiles anymore."

The county uses about 225,000 gallons of gas a month for all county agencies including the big user, PBSO, as well as fire-rescue, parks, road maintenance and other county departments with large fleets. Last week, it paid $2.54 a gallon, but the price fluctuates each week. The price includes state and local taxes, but the county is exempt from the federal excise tax of about 19 cents a gallon.

The county buys about 3 million gallons a year, with about 1.7 million gallons going to the sheriff's office, which consumes about 2.3 million gallons each year, including gasoline from the village of Wellington and pumped at gasoline stations using a credit card system.

Deputies use up to 90 gallons a week, according to county gasoline records during the past year. The deputy with the biggest use works in western Delray Beach.

"He's either accumulating a lot of patrol miles or there's a lot of idling hours on the engine," said sheriff's Col. Bruce Frumoff. Deputies are regularly advised not to leave their engine idling for long periods because it wastes gasoline and can cause engine problems, he said. Deputies must report their mileage each time they use a county pump as a check against excessive use, Frumoff said.

Bradshaw said there's little his department can do to reduce fuel use. Deputies in the heat of the day need air conditioning when stopped to file reports or to keep prisoners or police dogs comfortable.

Limiting patrols is not an option, he said.

"I don't want a deputy sitting in one spot waiting for something to happen," Bradshaw said. "I want him moving."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/05/22/s1b_pbsoGas_0522.html