Two-and-a-half years after former mayor Eddie Price crashed his city-owned SUV through a Causeway toll booth, new mayor Donald Villere is doing away with take-home vehicles for department heads.

Thursday night, Villere told the City Council that the mayor, the planning director and the finance director will no longer be provided with take-home vehicles. They will however, be provided with a vehicle allowance.

The change will go into effect Wednesday with the start of the new fiscal year. The amount paid to each person will be based on the cost of a four-door midsize or large vehicle, maintenance of such vehicle and fuel expenses for mileage of 15,000 miles per year as well as suitable insurance. The owner will have to list the city as an additional insurer on his or her policy.

Villere said they will be required to have a vehicle big enough to fit four grown people comfortably.

The current calculated value for these items is $1,015 per month.

Villere said he then used the average mileage each person routinely drives for city business compared to what they use for personal use to determine what percentage of that money they will be paid.

The mayor will be allowed 90 percent of that calculated value, the planning director will be paid 70 percent of the value and the finance director will be paid 50 percent of the total value. These percentages are taken from the 2008 and 2009 mileage logs provided by each director.

Villere said the police chief and officers will continue to be allowed to take home their cars as well as the director of public works, who often has to go out on emergency calls during the night and on weekends.

He said he has found having a city-owned vehicle assigned to him more of a bother himself than a benefit because he oftentimes had to drive to City Hall just to pick up the city-owned SUV to go out to tend to city business. He said most of the time he left his city-issued vehicle parked at City Hall, and only on a few occasions, when he had somewhere to go first thing in the morning or late at night, has he brought the vehicle home.