72 Taxpayer-Provided Cell Phones in the Hands of City Employees

If the San Juan Capistrano City Council were to apply Gov. Jerry Brown’s standards for the percentage of public workers who should use taxpayer-funded cell phones, it, too, would be taking away phones.

In January, Brown announced he would strip 48,000 state workers of their cell phones by June 1 because, he said, "it is difficult for me to believe that 40 percent of all state employees must be equipped with taxpayer-funded cellphones," he said in a statement.

In San Juan Capistrano, taxpayers footed the bills for 72 cell phones—63 percent of the city's workforce in 2010. The monthly bills for the phones, as well as five wireless Internet cards, used by city staffers totaled $35,857.87 in 2010, according to information provided by the city.

According to San Juan's deputy city manager, Cindy Russell, cell phones are allocated to staffers based on their job functions, such as those working out in the field or handling an emergency. So just because someone is a manager or a department head doesn't necessarily mean he or she has a phone.

"It's based on need, what our needs might be to get a hold of them," she said.

Seventeen of the 72 cell phones are listed as spares in city documents. The spare phones, although labeled “spare” may be assigned to someone on a particular shift or if there is a need for someone who is not assigned a phone to use one, said Deputy City Clerk Christy Jakl.

"Our part-time employees are typically not assigned a phone; however, they may be using the department/division spare phone if available to them if necessary," she said. "In quickly reviewing the bills, it appears that if the phone was completely inactive, there were nominal charges applied from $0.13 to $5." 

The city's information shows that only two of the five City Council members used taxpayer-funded cell phones in 2010: Laura Freese, who used a BlackBerry, and Derek Reeve, who used a Casio.

Next-door, Laguna Niguel issues 56 city-paid phones that float among a workforce of 117 people.