{"id":108269,"date":"2025-07-31T19:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T19:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/108269\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T19:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T19:00:10","slug":"why-are-houston-employees-still-driving-rentals-on-taxpayers-dime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/108269\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are Houston employees still driving rentals on taxpayers\u2019 dime?"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON, Texas <\/strong> \u2013 You know how frustrating it is when your family car breaks down, and you have to rent one just to get the kids to school or pick them up after their practice. Now imagine if that rental car became your everyday ride for months. <\/p>\n

KPRC 2 Investigates<\/a> found that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happening inside Houston Public Works, and according to city records, the department has been renting vehicles for years. <\/p>\n

City of Houston Public Works rented vehicle. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy in the heck are we renting vehicles at a cost that doesn\u2019t make sense?\u201d Mayor John Whitmire asked 2 Investigates Mario Diaz. <\/p>\n

2 Investigates discovered the practice while in Fifth Ward last April when we spotted a truck with a City of Houston seal, and a Herc\u2019s Rentals logo underneath. <\/p>\n

The employee shared that his city unit was in the shop. <\/p>\n

Mario asked him how long he\u2019d been in the rental, and he responded, \u201cI wanna say back in Thanksgiving.\u201d <\/p>\n

We found that this is indeed the case; one of the reasons this arm of the city relies on renting vehicles daily is due to the number of vehicles it has in the shop.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s your tax dollars footing the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s again an example of the City of Houston not having the best practices,\u201d said Mayor Whitmire. <\/p>\n

City documents showing vehicles rented in 2022. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

We wanted to know more, and open records show the city has been renting vehicles since 2021. Sedans, mid-size SUVs, minivans, and pick-up trucks are just some of the more than 250 vehicles rented. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the Mayor has got an excellent point, but I think context also matters,\u201d said Houston Public Works Director Randy Macchi. \u201cIt\u2019s important to understand the totality of it. I don\u2019t know every single instance of every vehicle we\u2019ve got going on, but you\u2019re right, we need to know that. We need to take a real close look at all of our operations, top to bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of vehicles rented by City of Houston Public Works went down in 2022 from 2021. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

The data shows Public Works<\/a> did not rent as many vehicles from 2021 to 2022. Since then, the numbers have jumped, with 2025 on pace to be the year the department rents the most vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely on an upward trend,\u201d Macchi added. <\/p>\n

Document showing the number of vehicles rented by Houston Public Works in 2024. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

The trend goes back to former Mayor Sylvester Turner\u2019s time in office and has only continued under Mayor Whitmire. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you, this was not an issue until you walked in here and asked me about it,\u201d Mayor Whitmire added. <\/p>\n

Mayor John Whitmire talking to 2 Investigates Mario Diaz (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Documentation from Public Works<\/a> shows the department spent more than $5 million renting vehicles since 2021. It\u2019s half of the $10.4 million that was budgeted. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll go look at procurement,\u201d the mayor told us. \u201cWho got the damn contract?\u201d<\/p>\n

Documents show the City of Houston Public Works Department budgeted $10.4 million to rent vehicles, and spent more than $5 million doing so. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Records show that Herc Rentals and Enterprise are two of six companies the city rents from. <\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I am here to tell you today, your reporting is going to bring about a change in practices,\u201d said Mayor Whitmire.<\/p>\n

Houston Public Works Director Randy Macchi and 2 Investigates Mario Diaz (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Mario asked the new Public Works Director, \u201cWhy did it take someone like us or me at 2 Investigates to uncover this issue that you\u2019re saying, \u2018I got to look at this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Macchi replied, \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t take that.\u201d<\/p>\n

2 Investigates is looking into a breakdown of new vehicle purchases and when they were delivered. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re still digging, and we\u2019ll let you know what those new vehicle numbers reveal. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas \u2013 You know how frustrating it is when your family car breaks down, and you have…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[69098,4345,10557,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-108269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-city-of-houston-employees","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-rental","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114949392476383632","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}