A recent California Superior Court decision ordering Los Angeles County to scrap its reimbursement schedule for employees who use their own cars on official business is expected to have precedent setting impact on other muni­cipalities and government agencies around the country. Based on a study by the management consulting firm of Runzheimer & Co., Judge Harry Rupp found that Los An­geles County workers have been unfairly compensated for the use of their cars since 1974.

Under the system found to be unfair, employees had been paid 14-cents per mile for the first 300 miles driven each month, 13-cents per mile for the next 550 miles and 7-cents per mile thereafter. The Runzheimer report calls for imple­mentation of a “standard allowance” system that would reimburse employees on a time basis for such costs related to vehicle ownership as insurance, license fees, taxes, deprecia­tion and interest. The standard allowance would use a mile­ age basis to compute expenses for gas, oil, maintenance and tire repair.

Although the Runzheimer report did not specifically criti­cize Los Angeles County for its method of reimbursing em­ployees, the County may be faced with the prospect of pay­ing millions of dollars in restitution to those workers who were found to have been underpaid since 1974.