CA Gov Brown strips cell phones from state employees [View All]

[The Straight Story]

Gov. Jerry Brown issued his first executive order Tuesday, taking aim at a technology that wasn't around the last time he was the state's top official: cell phones.

The governor ordered state agency and department heads to collect half of the approximately 96,000 state-issued cell phones currently in public employees' hands, a move he said will save California at least $20 million a year. Each cell phone costs an average of $36 a month, he added.

"It is difficult for me to believe that 40 percent of all state employees must be equipped with tax-payer funded cell phones," Brown said in a written statement. "The current number of phones out there is astounding."

Brown said he would like to see the number of cell phones cut by 48,000 by June 1, but said it may take a bit longer because some of those devices may be under contract with carriers. He noted that even with the reduction, one-fifth of state employees will still have cell phones.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/11/BA661H7E1T.DTL