Caltrans Employees Accused Of Using Taxpayer-Funded Cars For Personal Use
STUDIO CITY (CBS) – A CBS investigation found some Caltrans employees using Caltrans trucks rented with taxpayer money for their own personal use.
The workers have been using dozens of new $30,000 pickup trucks rented by Caltrans — even though the agency was ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown to reduce its fleet to save money.
Caltrans eliminated more than 1,300 vehicles under Brown's directive, but it's still renting as many as 200 vehicles a month.
Documents obtained by CBS showed monthly bills of more than $100,000 for the vehicles, which cost taxpayers $750,000 from Jan. to Sept. 2012.
Caltrans claims the trucks are used to conduct state business and can only be used for that purpose, but some employees do not appear to be following the rules.
Four workers were filmed using trucks for personal use, including Supervisor Sumner Baker from Colton.
Baker, who makes more than $100,000 a year, was seen driving a rented Caltrans truck to and from work.
On some days, Baker would leave his office a few hours after he got there and stop at a liquor store where he'd buy two small bottles of alcohol.
Read the entire story on CBSLA.com.
