The units were bought with funds included in the 2008-09 budget year allocated to the Public Facilities Department. The cost of each tracking device is $299, not including a monthly $30 monitoring fee.
"These GPS units will help the city to better track the most efficient routes, and be more accountable to constituents' concerns, for example, whether and when their street has been plowed," said Mayor Bill Finch.
Charles Carroll, the public facilities director, said: "This new technology will help us to examine the efficiency of our routing and allow us to make adjustments as necessary to respond to residents' concerns."
The GPS units will also allow the city to locate stranded snowplows or city vehicles in times of inclement weather or other similar circumstances.
"When I took office, one of my goals was to professionalize city government, increase accountability and realize cost-savings.
The installation of GPS units is one more step in that process," Finch said.
The devices can also be used by officials to monitor how employees assigned city vehicles are using them, to detect any unauthorized, personal trips and to check on whether employees are following their work schedules.
Last year, for example, six city fire inspectors were fired after a 2007 investigation, based on information provided by GPS devices secretly placed in their city vans allegedly showed they had misused the city vehicles for personal purposes and failed to perform their duties as they had reported to supervisors.
The administration eventually plans to install the tracking devices in every city-owned vehicle, including those used by police and the mayor's staff.
The mayor's city vehicle will also be equipped with a GPS device.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Shawn Millar
Senior Director of Marketing / Online Media
Discrete Wireless, Inc.
678.762.6833 |
