53 percent of Fremont employees get city-issued cell phones

I’ll have a story sometime this weekend about a city-commissioned report to help it cut costs and be a leaner operation. The study found that Fremont is a pretty lean operation, but nevertheless made recommendations that could save up to $20 million.

One of the more interesting ones — albeit a smaller one — was about cell phones.

Here’s what it said:

City-Issued Cell Phones

Fremont currently issues over 450 cell phones to about half (53%) of its workforce. Approximately 265 cell phones are allocated to Police Department staff; 49 cell phones are assigned to Fire Department staff and apparatus; and 116 cell phones are provided to City staff in other departments.

Table 35. Cell Phone Annual Costs

Provider	FY 2009/10	FY 2010/11
Verizon	$175,421	$186,983
Nextel	$26,065	$17,939
TOTAL	$201,486	$204,922