PLANT OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE
This chapter examines Austin Community College's (ACC's) plant operation and maintenance functions in the following sections:
- A. Facilities Planning, Condition and Utilization
- B. Facilities Organization and Management
- C. Custodial Management
- D. Construction Program Management
- E. Energy Conservation and Management
- F. Safety and Security
- G. Transportation Services
G. TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
ACC owns 54 vehicles and leases 10 vehicles for the administration. Buyers in the Purchasing Department purchase all college vehicles by soliciting bids when the user department submits a purchase requisition. Most vehicles have been purchased, while others are leased. Exhibit 10-17 shows the number of ACC-owned vehicles by department.
Exhibit 10-17 Source: ACC Purchasing Department, June 2002.
ACC Vehicle Inventory by Department
Department Number
of VehiclesCampus Police 10 Facilities 23 Inventory and Receiving 7 Taylor Fire Academy 8 Information technology 3 Dean, Applied Technology 1 Drama 1 Hospitality management 1 Total 54 Each college department is in charge of its own vehicles from originating the purchase requisitions to operation and maintenance to ultimate disposal. ACC does not provide centralized transportation services for faculty, staff or students.
When the need arises for transportation services, such as field trips, officials rent vehicles for that purpose. Vehicle rental costs per year are identified in Exhibit 10-18.
Exhibit 10-18 Source: ACC Purchasing Department, June 2002.
ACC Vehicle Rental Expenditures
1998 - 2002
Year Rental
Expenditures1998-99 $3,020 1999-2000 $4,188 2000-01 $8,499 2001-02 $2,866 ACC vehicles are replaced when the user department determines that a replacement is needed. The old vehicle is traded in, sold through sealed bids or transferred to another ACC department, which frequently occurs. For example, an old truck was transferred to the Taylor Fire Academy and three high-mileage cars were transferred to the Campus Police once the originating department replaced them.
FINDING
ACC leases seven vehicles for administrative staff, two for the Small Business Development Center and one for Video Services. The Video Services lease is paid through a revenue-generating account for video telecom and video production services provided by the Video Services Department. According to their operators, vehicles are used for business purposes only, that is, for meetings across the college district and within the college service area, for local professional development activities and for driving from one campus to another. The vehicles were leased for a three-year period with the lease expiring for six of them on November 16, 2002. The lease for the college president's vehicle expires April 18, 2003. The lease expires for two other vehicles on March 24, 2003, and the remaining vehicle lease ends on May 5, 2003. ACC told the review team that the leases expiring in November would not be renewed. Leased vehicles, operators and related information are shown in Exhibit 10-19.
Exhibit 10-19 Source: ACC Purchasing Department, June 2002.
ACC Leased Vehicles for Administrative Staff
Department/Operator Vehicle Mileage Lease Amount
per MonthPresident 2000 Buick N/A $553 Executive Vice-President Pontiac Grand Am 19,997 $290 Executive Dean Pontiac Grand Am 30,995 $290 Executive Dean Pontiac Grand Am 20,000 $290 Provost Pontiac Grand Am 17,993 $290 VPEA Pontiac Grand Am 28,000 $290 Associate vice president of Facilities and Operations Pontiac Grand Am 21,287 $290 Small Business Dev. Pontiac Grand Am 13,165 $378 Small Business Dev. Pontiac Grand Am 14,288 $378 Video Services Mazda MPV LX Van 14,390 $471 The college pays for all costs related to the vehicles leased for faculty and staff, including leases, maintenance, repairs, gasoline and car washes. Other faculty and staff who use personal vehicles for business activities are reimbursed by the college at the state rate of 30 cents per mile. A survey of peer colleges found that an average of two vehicles is leased for faculty and staff. These are usually leased for the president and vice president, while all other faculty and staff use personal vehicles for college business purposes and are reimbursed at the college's approved mileage rate.
In a July 1, 2002 report to the board, the full-time faculty suggested reducing or eliminating leased vehicles used by administrators or sharing one vehicle among several people. On June 28, 2002, the ACC budget committee made a similar recommendation.
Recommendation 105:
Eliminate leased vehicles for faculty and staff that are not cost effective.
With the exception of the vehicles leased for the president, the executive vice president and the van for Video Services, the remaining leased vehicles represent unnecessary expenditures. It is more cost-efficient to use the state mileage rate on personal vehicles than to continue the high number of vehicle leases for faculty and staff.
ACC should immediately review current vehicle leases for termination rights and clauses on the seven remaining vehicles. It may be prudent, based on language contained in the leases, to continue leases until the expiration dates. However, the leases should not be renewed, and new leases should not be initiated.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TIMELINE
1. The college president and the associate vice president of Facilities and Operations conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the vehicle leases. January 2003 2. The president instructs the director of Purchasing to review lease agreements for termination or jump-out clauses. February 2003 3. The director of Procurement terminates lease agreements at the earliest opportunity. March 2003 FISCAL IMPACT
Assuming an average mileage rate of 8,000 miles per vehicle per year and taking the average cost of $315 per vehicle per month times 12 months, or $3,780; oil changes every 3,000 miles ($20 x 2) or $40; and conservatively assuming that the vehicle is filled with gas twice a month at $50 times 12 months, or $600, the average yearly total amount comes to $4,420 per vehicle. Applying the ACC rate of $.30 per mile, based on the average of 8,000 miles per year per vehicle, equals $2,400 per vehicle. This difference of $2,020 ($4,420 - $2,400) per vehicle per year multiplied by the seven vehicles equals $14,140 in savings per year ($2,020 x 7) and $9,427 for two-thirds of the first year. This figure does not include other maintenance or repairs to vehicles.
Recommendation 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 Eliminate leased vehicles for faculty and staff that are not cost effective. $9,427 $14,140 $14,140 $14,140 $14,140 FINDING
No single individual or department at ACC has responsibility for vehicle maintenance, which results in a lack of continuity in quality of service and a lack of accountability. Further, ACC has not developed policies and procedures for vehicle acquisition, usage, maintenance and disposition.
ACC does not have a vehicle maintenance department, facilities or the staff to operate such a program. Instead, each department or the driver/operator is responsible for vehicle maintenance, which means that there is no guarantee that preventative maintenance is performed or that any vehicle repair work done is necessary and reasonable. Without central coordination of vehicle maintenance and repairs, it is difficult to assure proper vehicle safety and oversight of repair costs.
In addition, the director of Purchasing confirmed that operators do not always adhere to ACC's purchasing policy before servicing or maintaining their vehicles. ACC requires that operators complete and submit purchase orders with an estimated cost of repair or service before a vehicle is taken in for service. However, since this does not always happen, invoices submitted for payment are the only records that the purchasing department receives indicating that the vehicle has received repairs and/or maintenance. This results in unauthorized, after-the-fact purchases.
Recommendation 106:
Develop and implement policies and procedures on vehicle acquisition, maintenance and disposal and develop strong punitive measures for unauthorized purchases.
The maintenance of all vehicles should be vested in one department rather than fragmented throughout all departments to ensure accountability. As there is no transportation department, one department should serve in an oversight capacity to ensure that all vehicles are used for business-related activities, that they receive regularly scheduled maintenance and that all repairs are necessary and reasonable.
The college should develop comprehensive policies and procedures that will have accountability for vehicle maintenance and disposal. Implemented policies must be disseminated to all departments and administrative staff who operate vehicles. The college also should develop punitive measures for ACC employees who engage in unauthorized vehicle servicing without obtaining proper ACC purchase orders and cost estimates. Vendors should be reminded that a purchase order represents a binding contract on the college and, without a valid purchase order, the college is not obligated to pay invoices received.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TIMELINE
1. The associate vice president of Facilities and Operations assigns responsibility for vehicle acquisition, maintenance and replacement to the director of Purchasing. January 2003 2. The director of Purchasing drafts vehicle procurement, maintenance and use policies and procedures, including procedures for staff to serve in an oversight capacity, and submits them to the associate vice president of Facilities and Operations. January 2003 - February 2003 3. The associate vice president of Facilities and Operations reviews the draft and sends the procedures to college administration for approval. March 2003 4. The associate vice president of Facilities and Operations implements the program. April 2003 FISCAL IMPACT
This recommendation can be implemented with existing resources.
FINDING
ACC does not have an efficient vehicle maintenance tracking system. To determine the repair cost for any vehicle, the Purchasing Department has to pull up all purchase orders by department and add the costs per vehicle. Vehicle operators must remember when their vehicles are due for an oil change or tune up. Since there is no mechanism in place to remind operators of scheduled maintenance, it is unclear whether vehicles have been maintained. Exhibit 10-20 shows themaintenance costs per year for 1998-99 through 2001-02. They were derived from adding all purchase order amounts from vendors supplying maintenance services.
Exhibit 10-20 Source: ACC Purchasing Department, June 2002.
ACC Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Expenditures
1998-02
Year Expenditures 1998-99 $49,685 1999-2000 $28,834 2000-01 $46,333 2001-02 $46,749 Many organizations use an efficient database maintenance tracking system to track and record vital vehicle maintenance information such as the date of last service, mileage since the last service, any history of recurring problems, costs related to service and scheduled maintenance prompts.
Recommendation 107:
Develop a vehicle tracking database system that will interface with ACC's computer system to ensure adequate vehicle maintenance and repairs.
A simple database system would automate maintenance of all vehicles. Since ACC does not operate a vehicle maintenance program and no mechanism exists to remind operators of scheduled maintenance or service, such a system is vital to ensure the effective servicing of all vehicles in a timely manner. The system would provide immediate access to maintenance schedules and other essential information, such as cost tracking, an element that is presently missing. The system also can include reporting capability that can be printed at regular intervals and given to other departments to inform them when vehicles should be scheduled for routine maintenance.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TIMELINE
1. The associate vice president of Facilities and Operations, the director of Purchasing and the associate vice president of Information Technology review the feasibility of developing a database system through ACC's existing computer system. January 2003 2. The associate vice president of Facilities and Operations and the associate vice president of Information Technology develop recommendations for creating a database through ACC's computer system. February 2003 3. The associate vice president of Facilities and Operations forwards the recommendations to college administration for approval. March 2003 4. College administration approves development of the database system. April 2003 5. The associate vice president of Facilities and Operations and the director of Purchasing determine necessary reports required. April 2003 6. The associate vice president of Information Technology, or designee, develops the database system. April - May 2003 7. The director of Purchasing and the associate vice president of Information Technology train staff on the system. June 2003 8. The director of Purchasing, in conjunction with the Information Technology Department, implements the system. July 2003 9. The associate vice president of Information Technology, or designee, maintains the database system. Ongoing FISCAL IMPACT
This recommendation can be implemented with existing resources.