“DMV renewal tags are consistently arriving at least one month after the expiration of the prior registration tags,” says a recently posted audit.

Undercover car tags missing

The County of San Diego’s management of its fleet of government vehicles by the Department of General Services has been in dangerous disarray, per a recently posted audit dated September 29, 2022. The high-stakes debacle has impacted a bevy of county departments, keeping them in dark about the arrival of new cars and trucks, as well as jeopardizing the safety and security of those they already have.

“During the fiscal year 2020-21, Fleet was only able to deliver 16% of standard vehicle orders compared to their goal of delivering 85% of orders,” says the report by chief auditor Juan Perez, regarding a crisis in the county’s so-called Fleet Management operation. “Fleet noted this goal was not met due to the operational impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic as manufacturer plants were temporarily closed.”

Covid aside, the audit says, leadership instability has been severely disruptive. “Specifically, two Fleet chiefs have left the department within the last few years, and there has been turnover with Fleet Standards Technicians. In addition, Fleet management acknowledged that vehicle order tracking in prior years was suboptimal, resulting in lost orders and delays.”

Whatever the cause, mismanagement has been chronic and severe, per the document. “As of December 2021, 40 of 297 vehicle orders (13%) from fiscal year 2019-20 and 203 of 289 vehicle orders (70%) from fiscal year 2020-21 were still in progress.” Of 20 cases sampled for the audit, “16 of 20 orders had more than 90 days pass between when Fleet received the vehicle order until a contract request was sent.”

Marko Medved grants that the Fleet has been slow to make repairs.

Compounding the mess, auditors say, they found that as of February 2022, “Fleet was not providing formal periodic updates regarding the status of outstanding orders to all departments and that departmental inquiries regarding order status were not always responded to in a timely manner.” In short, the report says, “Fleet has not established reliable benchmarks to effectively evaluate vehicle acquisition time, vehicle underutilization, and customer satisfaction.”

Warn the auditors: “Delayed vehicle acquisitions can cost customer departments in the form of continued repair costs of vehicles that are being retired while waiting for new vehicles. Many of the newer vehicles would also be more fuel efficient or electric. Furthermore, requested vehicles may no longer be available, requiring the department to seek out alternative options. Additionally, departments may not have a sufficient supply of vehicles to carry out essential functions if there are significant delays in the acquisition process, which in turn results in significant customer frustration and potential safety issues.”

As the aging county fleet awaits replacements, the report adds, maintenance disruptions due to increasing worker absences have burgeoned. “Fleet Technician vacancies and issues with staff calling out sick or extending time-off with the implementation of a 4-day/10-hour garage staff schedule has caused staffing issues and maintenance delays due to lack of staff available,” the audit found.

“There are currently three mobile technician vacancies out of five total budgeted positions. Mobile technicians are particularly essential to adequately service County Fire equipment located in rural communities that cannot be easily transported to be serviced.”

Two recalled vehicles were taken in for maintenance, but the recall work was not performed. “Both vehicles were returned to the client department without an explanation as to why the recall task was not completed.” As in the case of delayed purchases, officials blamed the pandemic for causing much of the problem. “According to Fleet, COVID-19 increased the number of sick days used by Fleet staff and affected the ability of other County staff to bring in vehicles for scheduled preventive maintenance.”

Even legally required state automobile licenses, including for undercover Sheriff’s vehicles, weren’t kept up to date. “DMV renewal tags are consistently arriving at least one month after the expiration of the prior registration tags,” says the audit. “December 2020 undercover vehicle renewal tags were not received until mid-January 2021. November 2021 undercover vehicle renewal tags were not received until mid-December 2021.” Notes the audit: “Without current DMV registrations, departments may be unable to legally operate vehicles that have an expired registration.

Additionally, this could cause a potential security issue as undercover vehicles with expired tags are at greater risk of being pulled over.” In a September 12, 2022, response to a draft of the report, county General Services chief Marko Medved accepted the audit’s major findings and presented a list of management changes to be completed between March 31 and June 30 of this year.

Nathan’s money lover

Valentine’s Day brought yet more special interest money for Democrat Nathan Fletcher’s 2024 bid to become a state Senator. The Barona Band of Mission Indians, operator of a casino and hotel in the county, gave $5500 on February 14.

La Jolla lawyer Natasha Wong came up with the same about a week before on February 6. According to a post on the University of San Diego law school website, alumnus Wong “is an international law attorney in San Diego. She began her career as the Executive Director of the Chinese Service Center. She is the co-founder of San Diego’s first fully licensed Chinese bilingual preschool and is the current Superintendent and former Principal of the Chinese School of San Diego.”

Meanwhile, Democratic state Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins has filed a January 26 amendment to Toni Atkins for Lt. Governor 2026 disclosure showing that Align Technology, Inc. of Morrisville, North Carolina gave the group $5000 on September 23 of last year, when Atkins was campaigning for the ultimately successful pro-choice Proposition One.

International law attorney Natasha Wong funds Fletcher’s state race.

Early this year, Align sued SmileDirectClub in U.S. District Court in California, according to a Nashville Business Journal account of January 5. “The complaint alleges that SmileDirectClub’s false advertising has harmed Align’s reputation and continues to cost the company millions of dollars,” according to the report, regarding longtime legal jousting between the two dental industry titans. “It is unfortunate that Align, already a defendant in multiple lawsuits regarding its anticompetitive conduct, has decided to bring this meritless complaint in an attempt to try to maintain its position in the aligner category and apparently justify its continuing decline in revenue,”

SmileDirectClub’s chief legal officer and executive vice president of business affairs Susan Greenspon Rammelt said in an email cited by the story. “Despite stating that SmileDirectClub was founded on a ‘dangerous lie,’ Align did invest $46.7 million in 2016 for a 17% stake in SmileDirectClub, followed by an additional $12.8 million investment to boost its ownership to 19%, according to a 2018 Los Angeles Times report — although those investments came after Align dropped a 2015 lawsuit against SmileDirectClub accusing the company of copyright infringement,” the Business Journal story says.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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