A volunteer panel convened in the wake of "guzzle-gate" has issued a report harshly critical of Salt Lake County's fleet policy and operations and is calling for a moratorium on current purchase practices.

"Out of control" was how panel member Vern Della-Piana described vehicle management practices.

"The county's vehicle fleet program is poorly managed, suffers from a systemic lack of meaningful oversight and needs a massive overhaul," the report states.

County Mayor Nancy Workman, out of the picture due to her own unrelated hiring scandal, convened the panel June 2. Six months and an estimated $100,000 to $120,000 later — panel members worked for free but support staff time was charged to the county — the panel has gone so far as to call for a moratorium in the fleet's purchasing program until a comprehensive study is done.

"It's not going to hurt to stop and analyze this," panel member Harry Jeffs said.

Incoming mayor Peter Corroon called the panel's report "something we need to take seriously" but disagreed.

"Without knowing the best path to choose, just stopping and not doing anything is not necessarily what we need to do at this point," he said.

Corroon said he was "surprised at the depth of their analysis." The report, with appendices, is 2 1/2 inches thick. "It was certainly pretty expensive for what we thought was going to be a volunteer effort."

Panel member Glen Watkins countered that if the panel's recommendations are implemented the county will save at least as much money as the study's cost. Others said the cost savings could easily reach millions of dollars.

Former auditor Craig Sorensen's theft of gasoline and previously reported instances of personal use of county vehicles are only the tip of the iceberg, the study concludes. About a fourth of the county's more than 2,000 vehicles are underutilized, resulting in the county having many more cars than it needs. Also, with its "rapid replacement" turnover program, it replaces cars that are hardly used.

Della-Piana cited three cars that were replaced after being driven only 11 miles.

"In many cases, no one is being held responsible or accountable for the utilization control functions set by policy," the report states.

Ironically, the county's operation last March was named the most efficient government fleet in the country by Utility Fleet Management Magazine. But the panel said the organization giving the award had conducted a fleet study commissioned by the county, biasing its opinion.

The panel found vehicle use policies — including those addressing personal use — "insufficient, vague, fragmented," and that in any case "there is a widespread disregard" of even those existing policies. Fleet management has not exercised its policy-driven control function, there is no "meaningful oversight" of fleet management, and insufficient analysis underlies key decisions.