Some 1,200 Honolulu police officers and 40 firefighters have asked a state judge to determine if they should be paid extra for time spent cleaning and maintaining their city-subsidized vehicles.

The issue was first raised in a 2002 class-action lawsuit that was settled with a $30 million payment by the city in 2006 for a variety of issues, including claims that officers and firefighters were being underpaid for overtime hours worked and not paid at all for time spent attending pre- and post-shift command briefings and for missed meal breaks.

That lawsuit, filed under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, covered the period 1999-2002, and the settlement noted that if police and fire workers continued to seek compensation for time spent maintaining their subsidized vehicles, the matter would have to be decided by the courts.

Late last month, the city filed court papers asking Circuit Judge Victoria Marks to resolve the issue. Marks oversaw the earlier lawsuit and approved the 2006 settlement.

Under the "subsidized vehicle" program, officers receive monthly payments of $562 to $600 as compensation for use of personal vehicles while on official duty.

HPD officer James "Kimo" Smith, treasurer of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, the police labor union, said one city report estimated that the department spends some $1,000 per month for each vehicle in its fleet of standard blue and white police cars.

Regular maintenance personnel look after the blue-and-whites, but officers who drive subsidized vehicles must pay for the cars, insurance and upkeep with the monthly subsidy payments, Smith said.

"By department policy, we have to maintain our vehicles daily, making sure that they are clean and operational," Smith said.

There is a question as to whether time spent by officers for that purpose should be compensated by the city, Smith said. "Whether it's an hour a week, five hours a month, it's time we are required to spend on the vehicles," he said.

Smith is named in the legal papers filed by the city last month as a representative of 1,200 officers in the subsidized vehicle program. Firefighter Robert H. Lee is named as the representative of the 40 HFD employees who drive subsidized vehicles.

During the 1999-2002 period covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit, vehicle subsidies for HPD officers were $450 to $488 per month and $425 for firefighters.

Since that time, new union contracts have increased the monthly subsidies to a $600 maximum for officers and $500 for firefighters.

"Defendants continue to assert that time spent cleaning and maintaining subsidized vehicles constitute compensable work under the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act)," city attorneys said in last month's court filing.

The drivers want to be paid for such work done after the original suit was settled in May 2006 "and their antagonistic claims indicate imminent and inevitable litigation," city lawyers said. "The city does not currently pay wages (to) police officers or firefighters for time spent cleaning and maintaining subsidized vehicles."

Vladimir Devens, lead attorney for police and firefighters in the case, could not be reached for comment.

Neither Smith nor City spokesman Bill Brennan said they could specify the amount of money at stake for taxpayers in the dispute.