The Washougal City Council may prohibit city-owned vehicles from being assigned to elected officials following an incident last month involving Mayor Sean Guard.
The council discussed the change to city policy at its workshop Jan. 10 and will consider adopting the changes at its meeting Monday night.
The Washington State Patrol stopped Guard on Interstate 5 near Kalama on Christmas Eve. The trooper said Guard was using emergency lights on the city-owned car to get other drivers to move out of the left lane.
Guard said the 1995 Ford Taurus no longer has emergency lights. He admitted to flashing his headlights at a driver going slower than the speed limit.
The trooper’s report was forwarded to the Cowlitz County Prosecutor’s Office for review. Guard could be charged with impersonating a police officer.
The vehicle Guard was driving is a retired police car still in the city’s fleet. Guard was not conducting city business when he was stopped. He did purchase all of the gasoline for the vehicle.
Guard and his wife have one vehicle, so the city car was assigned to Guard after he took office to eliminate transportation restrictions. Following the incident, though, Guard returned the city vehicle and asked staff to revise the city’s policy on take-home vehicles.
The city’s current policy doesn’t specifically address the issuance of take-home vehicles to elected officials, City Administrator David Scott said. Essentially, the elected officials are lumped into the same category as employees. A couple of department heads and the utility worker on-call after hours are the only city employees assigned city take-home vehicles, Scott said.
The change, if approved, will prohibit take-home vehicles for elected officials. The policy will allow elected officials to check out a city vehicle for out-of-town city business. Officials can also request reimbursement for mileage on their own vehicles, although Scott said most don’t file the requests.
Guard said he proposed the policy change to prevent any future problems.
“There is no doubt that I made an error of judgment in using the city vehicle for something that wasn’t city business, regardless of what that use was,” he wrote in an e-mail. “If this policy change helps to avoid that issue for anyone in the future, it is helpful to have it in place.”
Following the incident involving Guard, Councilman Michael Delavar questioned whether elected officials should have city vehicles. Delavar said the changes are a step in the right direction and praised Guard for proposing the action.
“He set the tone for turning the car back in and coordinating the changes in the policy with the city administrator,” Delavar said. “I think that says a lot about his leadership ability. It’s a good thing to see a leader have that humility.”
In general, Scott said the council was receptive to the proposed changes. Some questioned whether editing the policy was necessary and others were open to the mayor’s request.
The council will vote on the policy changes at its meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 1701 C St.
