Cahokia mayor fills up SUV on taxpayers' dime

Cahokia mayor fills up SUV on taxpayers' dime
City leases vehicle for him and provides a credit card
BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK AND BETH HUNDSDORFER

Belleville News-Democrat - June 22, 2008

Like many motorists, when Mayor Frank Bergman fills up his gas tank, he uses plastic. But his credit card is paid for by the public.

Technically, it's not really his gas tank either. It belongs to the taxpayers, as does the rest of the 2008 GMC Acadia, priced at $37,470, he drives.

But that didn't stop him in May from driving the SUV across country on a personal trip, and using the village credit card to fill up along the way.

Bergman says he only went as far as Tulsa, Okla., but a letter from the city clerk in response to a News-Democrat request for gasoline receipts refers to his trip to Las Vegas.

Bergman said a village ordinance allows him to use the publicly owned SUV for personal use, along with the village gasoline credit card.

However, the mayor wrote a personal check on June 6 for $130 to reimburse the village for gasoline he used on the personal trip in May. This was the same date the village received a Freedom of Information request from the News-Democrat asking for copies of the mayor's gasoline records.

"I didn't have to pay for that," Bergman said. "I felt that I should pay for it."

Bergman said he used the village credit card only three times on the trip, and paid for gas himself the other times.

According to a 1985 village ordinance, Bergman, who makes $40,000 per year as mayor, must be supplied with "an automobile, including all expenses of operating, repairing and insuring said automobile."

Bergman and other Cahokia mayors have interpreted this to mean a new vehicle every few years that can be driven anywhere for personal use, even on vacation, at public expense. Bergman said the village is leasing the 2008 Acadia he received in February for $24,000, or $8,000 annually for three years, with an option to buy. He formerly drove a village-leased 2005 Buick Ranier with under 50,000 miles that he turned over to the police department.

Taxpayer watchdogs said unrestricted use of a car and gasoline by public officials is an antiquated concept.

"It's an old law that should be updated," said Tom Schatz, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens Against Government Waste. "There should be more accountability of how this is being done."

Jim Tobin, president of National Taxpayers United of Illinois, agreed.

"This is a huge rip-off. This mayor should use his own car and be reimbursed for official use," he said.

Bergman has unrestricted use of a sports-utility vehicle that costs more than any other village vehicle, as well as those provided to other metro-east mayors, according to a limited survey.

Collinsville and Edwardsville do not supply cars to their mayors. And they pay mileage only for trips outside city limits.

Belleville Mayor Mark Eckert inherited a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria from the Police Department that replaced another former police car, a 2000 Crown Victoria. Granite City Mayor Ed Hagnauer drives a 2000 Ford Explorer seized by police from a drug dealer. Both mayors receive gas from a municipal pump, but say that while they take their vehicles home, they do not drive them for personal use.

Meanwhile, all but two of the 52 Cahokia-issued Quik Trip gasoline credit cards are in use by police, streets or parks department employees, Bergman said. Some of these vehicles are driven home and can be used for personal trips as well.

Besides Bergman's, Michele Halter, Cahokia's $54,000-per-year human resources director, uses a village-backed credit card to gas up her personal 2006 Lexus and 1999 Dodge Durango. Halter's son and daughter also are village employees.

The gasoline records show that Bergman charged $2,681 on the Quik Trip card for 971 gallons in 2007, at a municipal price minus state tax. So far in 2008, he used 285 gallons through April 27 for an average price of $3.29 a gallon.

Halter's gasoline use showed a 10-month total in 2007 of $1,018 for 380 gallons, or $2.68 per gallon, also purchased at the municipal rate. One of her two vehicles, a 2006 Lexus, uses premium gasoline.