The City of Belen is keeping a close eye on the use of city vehicles and overall gas consumption as one way to address continuing budget concerns.

In March, the city cut down employees’ vehicle use as one of several step to eliminating what was an estimated $3.5 million budget deficit. The policy keeps employees from taking city vehicles home, with the exception of the police department.

This month, the city council received a report detailing the gas expenditure within the police department.

During the month of May, the 11 officers who take city vehicles to their homes outside of Valencia County used 138.55 gallons of gas on average.

Among those 11 officers, the officer with the highest gas consumption used 247 gallons. The officer with the lowest used 21.7 gallons.

Also during that month, the 10 officers who take city vehicles to their homes within Valencia County used 100.8 gallons of gas on average.

Among those 10 officers, the officer with the highest gas consumption used 168 gallons. The officer with the lowest used 49.2 gallons.

The numbers don’t distinguish between patrol officers, detectives and others.

This page was published on July 2, 2010 at 3:04pm and is filed under Budget.