State Ponders Fate of Cory’s $36,000 Station Wagon

The state is trying to determine what to do with a $36,000 customized station wagon it bought last June for outgoing state Controller Ken Cory, it was reported Wednesday.

The Sacramento Union said the new GMC Suburban was delivered to Cory three months after he announced in March that he would not seek reelection. A spokesman for Cory, who leaves office Jan. 5, said the car was ordered before Cory decided not to run again.

The vehicle was customized by a Fort Worth, Tex., company that added a special mahogany interior, dual rear wheels, bucket seats, a special underdrive transmission adapter, a trailer hitch, a citizens’ band radio, aluminum wheels and running boards and two-tone gray paint.

The cost of customizing the vehicle was estimated at $9,000 to $10,000 by Terry Harter, president of Western Hauler in Fort Worth.

John Chen, a Cory spokesman, said the controller had not had a new state vehicle in four years. According to the Union, Cory asked the state if he could purchase the car, but the Department of General Services indicated it would not sell the vehicle. It estimates the car’s value at $32,917.

State policy provides elected constitutional officers with “whatever vehicles they deem necessary for the job,” spokeswoman Anne Garbeff of the Department of General Services said.

On leaving office, Cory plans to go to work for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, a New York-based investment banking and brokerage firm.