Friday, July 6, 2012
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City fuel costs, monitoring come under scrutiny By KEVAN MOORE kmoore@soundpublishing.com
City Auditor Gary Nystul has issued a report on Bremerton’s lackluster monitoring of fuel purchases and usage. The report follows up on a 2011 state audit that took exception with the city’s monitoring of more than $573,000 worth of fuel purchases. Nystul makes several recommendations in his report and notes that, “no response to the draft of the report was received from City management.” Mayor Patty Lent this week said she has told the police department — which burned through 50,851 gallons of gas last year at a cost of $181,025 — to be more accountable when it comes to fuel-related issues. “I’ve asked them to keep better mileage for all our police cars, for gasoline purchases and oil changes and maintenance,” Lent said. The mayor also said that she has directed the fire department — which used 14,106 gallons of fuel at a cost of $55,509 — to make some changes. “Fire tanks don’t get put in the [fuel tracking] software that the rest of city has and we’re looking at integrating usage for that software,” Lent said. “If council wanted me to do anything else, that would be a directive from council.” Mayor Lent also highlighted some managerial changes in public works that she expects will lead to more accountability when it comes
to fuel costs. For example, Lent said that fleet manager Jim Orton has also become the manager of the streets department. “We had a few supervisors, and didn’t have just one, so we moved some of that responsibility and (Orton’s) taking that on and doing a very good job,” Lent said. It’s clear from Nystul’s audit report that a lot of work remains. “One person has not been assigned the responsibility for overall fuel management,” Nystul wrote, previously to the mayor’s actin this week. “The Equipment Services Division administers the fuel contract and does the monthly billing and administration. However, they do not have authority or responsibility to monitor use, fueling entries, consumption, or perform any analysis. A policy has not been established for this oversight.”
Nystul notes that department procedures are also lacking. “An inquiry of department managers disclosed a variety of levels of monitoring,” Nystul wrote. “Some Managers look frequently at the fuel page and some do not look very often. In one instance a department is budgeted to pay for the fuel which is used by another agency and they have no knowledge of the use. In another instance, the department looks at their monthly cost but assumes another manager is reviewing use. One person should be in charge of the entire process to ensure accountability of all users.” Nystul said that a review of more
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Contributed Photo
Black smoke and soot mars the siding of the Faith Temple Church on Trenton Avenue after a fire that police believe was set by an arsonist Sunday morning self extinguished.
Recommended fixes: • All departments should have a system in place to monitor fuel purchases. • Managers need to be provided with sufficient data to perform their monitoring. • Management should establish an overall policy and procedure to ensure adequate monitoring. • Fire Department data on fuel use should be downloaded automatically to the fuel system. than 9,000 fuel purchases disclosed many errors by city employees entering odometer readings. “Without accurate readings, computing miles per gallon and monitoring use is difficult,” Nystul said. “Part of the management oversight should include accuracy of odometer readings. However, managers do not have reports with odometer readings that are readily available. Adding odometer readings to the fuel page would help make more complete data available for review.” But that fuel web page, Nystul noted, is lacking in many ways and could be greatly improved. In addition, Nystul noted that the fire department’s fuel data isn’t downloaded to the page. “The Department of Information Technology can easily make this addition if requested,” Nystul said.
Church hit by Sunday morning arsonist By KEVAN MOORE kmoore@soundpublishing.com
For the second time in less than a year, a Trenton Avenue church suffered fire damage as a result of what investigators believe to be arson. Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue crews responded to a report of a commercial structure fire at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday at the Faith Temple Church, located at 2814 Trenton Ave. The caller advised dispatchers that the small fire was already out. Upon arrival at the scene, firefighters observed fire and smoke damage to the exterior of the east side of the building. “It appears the fire was started in the bark at the base of the building, had traveled up the siding and smoke got into the soffit,” said CKFR spokesperson Ileana LiMarzi.
“Firefighters used their thermal imaging camera to determine the fire was completely out and had not extended into the walls or roof area. There is fire damage to the outside and some minor smoke damage inside.” LiMarzi said that due to the suspicious nature of the fire the county fire marshal was called. The fire is determined to be arson and the investigation is ongoing at this time. This is the second arson at the Faith Temple Church. The first occurred on October 17, 2011. At that time the fire had been set outside near the rear of the church and had resulted in minor fire and smoke damage. Anyone with information about either of the fires is asked to call the fire marshal’s Office at 360-3374442.
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Thank you for your participation in our 2012-13 budget discussion. The preliminary budget will be presented during the school board meeting on July 11 at 11:30 am. Visit www.CKSD.wednet.edu for more information or to view the preliminary budget presentation or the preliminary budget book. Join us at the budget hearing!
Wednesday, August 8, 6:30 pm Jenne-Wright Administration Center
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