Driving Miss Mayor

It’s about priorities.
 
Fire stations are being closed. City employees are losing their jobs. Services are being cut back.
 
But here are Mayor Fargo’s priorities: $650,000 to count trees. Pushing for pay hikes for city officials. And now it appears that $67,000 taxpayer dollars are going to pay for a car and driver for the Mayor (something no previous mayor has ever had).
 
In case you missed it, here’s the two-part series …

The Scoop: Driving Miss Mayor

(CBS13) -- Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo has made police services a major campaign issue this year. She tried to put a tax on the November ballot that would have brought more cash to the cops. But guess which citizen of Sacramento soaks up more police dollars than just about anybody else? Her name is Heather Fargo.

For the last few years, Mayor Fargo has had a retired Sacramento Police officer drive her around. The cop's on a pension, but when he's driving the mayor, he gets $34.50 an hour. And when he's not available, the cops assign other officers to haul Fargo. Total cost for the chauffer service? $61,442 last year.

This money comes straight out of the police budget. Its money that could be used for real police business, like fighting gangs. The mayor's office didn't respond to my written request for an explanation. And there's even more money the cops are spending to drive the mayor. I'll tell you more tomorrow.
 
The Scoop: Driving Miss Mayor II

(CBS13) -- Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo has a nice perk – a retired cop to chauffer her around day and night in an unmarked police car. Last night I told you the driver costs over $61,000 a year, money straight from the police budget. But I didn't tell you what her car costs – that's an extra $6,000 a year, paid by the police.

This means the cops are paying over $67,000 each year to drive the mayor. How could this happen? Well, a few years ago, Fargo and her cronies on the Sacramento City Council authorized the police to pay for the chauffer service. It's that simple.

At the time, they talked about security concerns. But there are no real security issues for the mayor – never have been. They did it because Fargo didn't want to pay for the service out of her own funds. By the way, I made a written request to Fargo's office for comment. I'm still waiting.