As New Orleans cuts costs, Louisiana auditor reviews take-home vehicles: ‘Is it necessary?’

As New Orleans looks to shave costs, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor is probing whether to curb the city’s roughly 2,800-vehicle fleet, including take-home vehicles. 

Auditor Mike Waguespack – who is already monitoring the city’s finances, including overtime costs – said Tuesday that he’ll examine whether employees who have take-home cars actually need them and whether the city is selling vehicles it no longer uses.

The city’s fleet was 40% larger at the end of July than it was in 2023, according to data provided to the Times-Picayune last month. At least 935 municipal employees, or roughly 20% of the city’s workforce, drove cars home as of December, costing the city at least $41 million. Most are police officers.

“Is it necessary? Is it a fringe benefit or is it really justified?” Waguespack said on Tuesday.

Waguespack’s moves come after Mayor-elect Helena Moreno in December questioned Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s use of take-home cars and the size of the city’s overall fleet, and as Moreno’s administration is implementing a host of furloughs and layoffs to avoid a $222 million deficit that would have otherwise plagued the new year.

A spokesperson for Moreno said Monday that “it is clear there are efficiencies to be gained and some unnecessary allocation of resources” in the city’s vehicle fleet.

“Reducing unnecessary expenditures is at the top of the Moreno administration’s priorities,” Todd Ragusa said.

A Cantrell spokesperson did not return a request for an interview.

The auditor’s report will be released as one part of a comprehensive review of the city’s fiscal practices requested by State Bond Commission after it agreed to allow the city to sell $125 million in short-term revenue bonds in November. Waguespack will review New Orleans’ finances for fiscal years 2022 through 2025 and make recommendations.

His office will begin issuing reports on various budgetary issues in the next few months, and will issue the full slew of reports by mid-year, he said.

A deep review 

New Orleans has had to contend with state intervention ever since the city discovered a $160 million deficit last year, caused by a failure to account for police overtime, ignored warnings about overspending, and too-rosy revenue projections.

Waguespack weekly approves the city’s drawdowns from the $125 million pool the State Bond Commission authorized last year, so that the city could make payroll for 5,000 employees.

He is also looking into the city’s policies and practices governing overtime spending, another area Moreno has said her administration will take measures to control after she takes office on Jan. 12.

Now, his audit of city vehicles — his first deep-dive into that issue — will examine the condition of municipal vehicles, their maintenance and insurance records. It will also examine the city’s vehicle policies, including who gets to take home a car, Waguespack said.

Waguespack on Tuesday questioned the size of the city’s overall fleet, which includes “pool” vehicles that are not assigned to a particular driver. The city’s total fleet consisted of 2,800 vehicles as of July 30, according to city records provided to the Times-Picayune.

“At first glance it appears that there is an excessive amount of pool cars— some of which are dated in age,” said Waguespack. “It could be an issue of not selling the surplus property.”

Of the fleet, 350 vehicles are pre-2010 models, according to the records. Waguespack said he worries that unnecessary vehicle expenditures — including costs to maintain and insure vehicles past their prime — could be straining the city’s finances.

Increase in fleet

The city did not provide take-home vehicle data for 2020-2024 or total fleet data for 2020-2022 in response to a public records request. 

But data it did provide show the overall fleet has increased dramatically in recent years. By the end of 2023, there were 1,970 overall cars, compared to roughly 2,800 in July. 

Also in 2023, the New Orleans Police Department rolled out more than 700 new police vehicles as part of a push by then-Interim New Orleans Police Superintendent Michelle Woodfork to give every officer a take-home car to boost recruitment numbers. Of the 935 employees who had take-home cars in December, 832 were NOPD employees.

The city dedicated $26 million of its $388 million in federal pandemic aid to public safety vehicles, according to the city’s American Rescue Plan spending dashboard.

The $41 million the city paid for the take home vehicles in use as of December, per the records, includes only the purchase price of the cars, and not the insurance, maintenance or gas it must also pay.  

The size and oversight of the city’s fleet has long been a point of contention.

In 2008, then- Inspector General Robert Cerasoli found that the city was paying $1 million a year for 273 vehicles for public workers, not including purchase costs, and that there had been frequent abuse.

In response, Mayor Mitch Landrieu slashed the number of administrative take-home vehicles to 59, and separately cut the number of cars assigned to public safety employees from 758 in June 2010 to 414.

In 2016, a report by then-Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux found that between 2009 and 2024, the city had no formal fleet management system in place to track how many vehicles the city owned, or how often they were used or repaired.

Mayor’s personal fleet 

Moreno highlighted concerns about the city’s take-home car policies in an interview with the Times-Picayune last year.

“We have way too many people with take-home cars that are non-public safety employees,” Moreno said.

Of the 935 employees who have take-home cars in December, 95% had public safety responsibilities.

She also took shots at the mayor’s personal fleet of take-home cars, and said she’d get rid of them. “I don’t know why she needs four.”

Cantrell confirmed at the time that she has three city vehicles – “two large vehicles and one sedan” — which she said were necessary for “safety and protection.” She also fired back that Moreno “doesn’t know what she doesn’t know.”

A list of take-home vehicles provided to the Times-Picayune only lists one vehicle assigned to Cantrell, a 2021 Chevrolet Suburban. It’s unclear why the other two vehicles are not listed.