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DOVER – As part of an ongoing effort to trim costs, a Dover City Council committee asked city staff Monday night to review policies for municipal employee cellphones and take-home vehicles.

The Legislative, Finance and Administration Committee charged the city’s controller to look for efficiencies, particularly with respect to a cellphone distribution and reimbursement policy that costs the city around $47,000 per year.

Currently, more than 50 city workers have city-issued cellphones and another nine who use personal cellphones for their jobs are reimbursed $15 per month.

The city also pays for approximately 50 portable broadband cards and cellular data hookups for police cruisers.

Councilman Bill McGlumphy, who chairs the committee, said workers in the inspections, public services and utilities departments, who make up the bulk of non-police cellphone users, could be using radios in their city vehicles instead of phones.

“I think part of what brought this forward was the duplication,” he said. “Can we do without one?”

Acting City Manager Scott Koenig said if he had to choose, he would preserve the more reliable radio system, since cellphone networks are often overloaded and fail during emergencies.

But he said cellphones are a necessary line of communication for city personnel.

“There are conversations that should not happen on the radio,” he said.

Councilman Bill Hare questioned why 20 percent of the city’s non-police workforce has cellphones.

“Why does the warehouse need three cellphones? They work there all day,” he said.

The city contracts with Verizon for its cellphone services via a state purchasing pool, but Councilman David Bonar said Koenig should attempt to get a better price on phone plans.

“When’s the last

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