As Douglas County Commissioner, I will drive my own car to work instead of using a county-owned vehicle at taxpayer expense. If the average citizen has to fill up their own gas tank in order to get to work, then I believe a county commissioner should do the same.
If other commissioners choose to drive a county-owned vehicle home from work each night, that's fine with me. I will not be telling other commissioners how to conduct their business affairs.
Driving my own car to work will not make or break the county budget. But it will (hopefully) set a positive example for other county employees. If they see a county commissioner making sacrifices in order to save the taxpayers some money, then perhaps the county employees will be inspired to look for cost-cutting measures in their own jobs.
I WILL use a county vehicle for county business. For example, if there is a conference or meeting to attend outside of Roseburg, I will use a county vehicle. But I will pick up the vehicle at the county yard and drop it off before I go home each night. (Forgive me for being technical, but if there were a conference in Eugene for example, I might drive the county vehicle home the night before, and then drive straight to Eugene the next day, since it's "on the way" from my home.)
The bottom line is that I do not plan to drive a county vehicle home from work each night. It's a luxury that Douglas County could afford in the 1970s, but not today.
Kudos to Douglas County Commissioners Mike Winters and Susan Morgan for using their own personal vehicles to get to work! I believe it's important to give credit where credit is due!
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