Government Vehicles

When not in a capital gripped by budget crises, state Sen. Ron Calderon can be found touring his San Gabriel Valley district in a Cadillac STS V8 Luxury Sports Sedan that the state bought for $54,830. The Democrat from Montebello spent an average $83 per week on gasoline last year, charged to California taxpayers on a state-issued card. When legislators' cars need maintenance or are in accidents -- even with spouses or offspring at the wheel -- taxpayers also pay, state records show.

They have become a time-honored perk at Los Angeles City Hall -- hundreds of city-issued cars doled out to elected leaders and their top deputies. Now Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to eliminate most of the 229 vehicles in the city's executive motor pool, as well as cars from other fleets, to help close a $155-million shortfall.

If you are what you drive, California lawmakers are a newly green bunch. They're swapping gas-sucking sport utility vehicles for gas-sipping hybrids as their official state cars. Now that the lease on his Ford Explorer has expired, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) is driving a Toyota Prius. At least 38 of his fellow members also have chosen hybrids; only 10 have requested nonhybrid SUVs as their taxpayer-subsidized wheels.

President Bush ordered the federal government Wednesday to move toward purchasing hybrid-powered vehicles and reducing the federal fleet's petroleum consumption by 2% each year, part of an effort to boost alternatives to gasoline. Bush announced the executive order during a morning devoted to promoting new-technology fuels.

Los Angeles County government, Southern California's largest employer, may soon join a burgeoning trend that entices workers to give up their gas-guzzling cars for more environmentally friendly ones. Earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors asked its staff to come up with ways to encourage the county's 90,000 commuting employees -- about 90% of the workforce -- to buy and drive so-called green cars, such as hybrids partly fueled by electricity or other high mileage, low emission vehicles.

Amid a swirl of television cameras and persistent reporters, Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo on Thursday continued to duck questions about who was driving his city-owned vehicle when it was damaged in a 2004 accident and repaired at taxpayer expense. At a news conference promoting his work with at-risk youths, Delgadillo repeatedly refused to identify who was responsible for the accident or discuss other controversies involving his office.

In a decision that could set a precedent for local governments across the United States, trash haulers, school and city bus lines and other publicly funded fleets in Southern California can be required to buy low-polluting vehicles fueled by natural gas or other alternative fuels, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. But private and federal fleets such as Federal Express and the U.S.

Prosecutors on Friday filed misdemeanor drunk driving charges against a top-ranking Los Angeles County sheriff's executive who was arrested for allegedly driving his county-issued car while intoxicated. Division Chief Michael Aranda, 62, who has served nearly 40 years with the department, was arrested June 12 after a late-night traffic stop on the 14 Freeway near Acton. As chief of the department's Technical Services Division, Aranda supervised the crime lab and computer systems.

Citing a looming budget shortfall, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Thursday on the Los Angeles Police Department to consider trimming some traditional perks, including the ability of many officers to take home city cars. In a letter to Police Chief William J. Bratton, the mayor said the department must find efficiencies to help the city avoid a potential $271-million budget shortfall while expanding the police force by 1,000 officers during the next four years. The LAPD accounts for $1.

One recent Friday, while thousands of motorists were suffering through freeway traffic from the San Fernando Valley to downtown Los Angeles, Police Chief William J. Bratton skipped the congestion and made the trip in a fraction of the time, buzzing from Van Nuys to Parker Center in a city helicopter.