New procedure could reinstate motor pool access

Student groups at Portland State who want access to state motor-pool vehicles may soon have to detail their request in writing, after use of the vehicles was suspended spring term.

In an effort to restore access to the vehicles, Todd Bauch, director of operations for the Outdoor Program for Campus Recreation, is working with university legal counsel Chip Lazenby on a template that would put in writing five points explaining and describing for what purposes state vehicles would be used, and who would use them.

Two of the five points are currently being worked on, said Bausch, focusing on who can and cannot use the vehicles and what constitutes official business.

Student group access to state motor-pool vehicles was suspended last year after certain groups used state-owned vans to go to protests. The department of administrative services, in charge of the state motor pool, made a decision saying that using a state-owned vehicle was an inappropriate use of state-owned property.

Bausch said he sees it as imperative to use the template, modeled after Oregon Revised Statute laws, as a way to regain access to motor pool vehicles because renting vehicles from car rental agencies is already affecting student groups and could potentially affect future academic programs as well.

So far, the process of adopting the template for PSU has been a slow process, Bausch said. The problem is that PSU has never had any official way to use state motor-pool vehicles, he said.

Jordan Bermingham, who works in the Campus Recreation office, said that Enterprise, the current rental car agency used by student groups at PSU, is not equipped to handle the amount of rentals needed for various groups on campus.

“We were left scrambling last spring term because we budgeted for state motor-pool vehicles,” Bermingham said.

Bauch thinks that both Campus Recreation and SALP have been conducting themselves as they have always done and will continue to do, but now they will be putting what they do into writing.

Kent Fretwell, the state fleet manager of the department of administrative services, said that discussions over the issue are now taking place with the attorney general.