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Armando Martinez
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Tab 8
Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
December 26, 2011
Bunnell administrator needs more oversight
Bunnell residents probably could use a refund on the thousands of dollars in gas money they paid
to their city manager, but at the least, taxpayers deserve a review of city policy.
Many Bunnell residents likely have questions about how their city government handled expenses
incurred by City Manager Armando Martinez, who commutes from Palm Bay in Brevard
County. Martinez, who has said that he wants to be closer to family in Brevard County, was
turned down recently in a bid for a police chief position in Melbourne. He now says he plans on
staying in Bunnell.
Martinez, 52, is a retired Miami police captain and former Bunnell chief of police. Bunnell
officials liked his resume when they hired him as city manager in 2008.
But Martinez ran up hefty travel expenses. His home in Flagler went into foreclosure in 2008
and until November, Martinez was racking up mileage and wearing down city-owned tires when
he was commuting to work from Palm Bay in a Chevrolet Impala owned by Bunnell.
According to city records, Martinez put 37,000 miles on the Impala between January and
September. And he burned through 1,481 gallons of gasoline purchased by the city of Bunnell
for $4,875.80. After hearing from city commissioners, Martinez now drives his own car to and
from work.
It's a common practice for city and county governments to allow their administrators to drive a
government-owned vehicle. But surely most administrators don't put almost 5,000 miles a month
on their cars.
City Commissioner Elbert Tucker said he told Martinez that he should limit his use of the city's
car to conducting city business "in and around Bunnell, a trip to Tallahassee on occasion and
four miles down the road to his home in Palm Coast."
That sounds about right. It's unfortunate for the taxpayers that the message didn't get through
until Martinez had used up almost 1,500 gallons of gasoline.
This raises some questions. Does the city spell out its policy regarding use of city cars and
gasoline credit cards? Are travel records regularly reviewed? The taxpayers need these
safeguards.
Martinez did not violate his contract, which allows him to take his city car home. In the future,
city commissioners should make sure that top officials understand the city's view of appropriate
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