Committee advances countywide vehicle-use policy to Public Works for review

The Richland County Executive and Finance Standing Committee reviewed a proposed countywide vehicle-use policy on Tuesday and voted to forward the draft to the county’s Public Works department for further review.

The proposed policy would apply to most county departments that operate county-owned vehicles; the sheriff’s department and its emergency-specific rules for lights, sirens and weapons were explicitly excluded from the countywide draft.

County staff said the draft draws on policies from other counties and departmental feedback. Administrator Clemons told the committee she had shared a draft with department heads and received comments from multiple offices, including Health and Human Services, ambulance services and Highway. “We sent it to Kathy Cooper at Land Conservation, Britney Paulus at Pine Valley, HHS, ambulance, Josh at Highway,” Clemons said.

Discussion at the meeting focused on cellphone use while driving, license verification and accident reporting. Ambulance staff raised concerns about a proposed prohibition on handheld phones because field crews use phones for navigation and call coordination. Committee members suggested clarifying the policy to permit hands-free devices and to provide guidance for emergency medical services: “The phrase needs to be clarified… you can use it for GPS… but looking at that right now, when they say use a handheld phone tells me I can't have my phone used at all,” Commissioner Frank said. The committee directed staff to revise the language to explicitly permit hands-free phone use and to address GPS use by emergency crews.

The draft also contains standard employee responsibilities for accidents, including a requirement that employees notify law enforcement and their department head following an incident. Committee members discussed the county’s process for checking employees’ driving records; staff said they will explore options and costs for running license checks.

After discussion, members voted to send the draft policy to Public Works for additional review and recommended revisions. The committee’s voice vote signified approval to move the draft; no final adoption was made at Tuesday’s meeting.