By Emerson Drake
1/25/11
I know in this day and age of extreme litigation, you would think the Mayor and City Council would look out for the taxpayers best interests but that just isn't the case.
The City policy regarding class "C" licenses is, "if the employee doesn't tell us about having a suspended license from drunk driving or multiple tickets, then we don't know about it", was the response from the Modesto Risk Management Dept.Class "A" and "B" licenses are governed by the DoT (Department of Transportation) and the state will immediately notify the city regarding a license being suspended.
Interestingly, Modesto Police Chief Mike Harden in a conversation on Monday, said that as long as his officers have a valid license they could drive his squads.
So apparently having a blood alcohol level more than two and a half times the legal limit, and receiving a ticket doesn't effect ones ability to drive squad cars at excessive speeds during chases (up to 125 mph in a recent chase that ended up in the squad car literally cutting another car in half), as long as you can finagle the court system into issuing a temporary license.
You would think that a Police Officer, who as we mentioned from a recent court case can and will drive at speeds of over 125 miles per hour and execute maneuvers at all speeds to halt escaping vehicles, would be specially licensed but the answer is no.
In private companies, receiving a drunk driving conviction would immediately stop you from driving company vehicles.Semi drivers and commercial vehicle drivers would lose their license immediately, although they might be eligible to receive a "C" class license but would no longer be able to drive for a living.
Our recommendation to limit liability is: monitor and track all employees who drive city vehicle s. Require them to submit a valid drivers license before being allowed to drive city vehicles.
Require all employees to notify the city of any alcohol moving violations.Insist that no employee who has a drunk driving conviction in the last five years be allowed to drive city vehicles of any sort.
If the fact that the employee drives a city vehicle is an essential job function, then said employee should be released from employment.Modesto needs to take a hard stand against drunk driving, one that's more than lip service followed by a wink and a nod like it is now.
After all, Don't ask, Don't tell. They'll never know.
