John McCain couldn't recall how many houses he owns. Richmond doesn't know how many city officials use government cars for personal use.

The revelation -- courtesy of Times-Dispatch investigative reporter David Ress -- represents only the latest chapter in a multi-volume saga about vehicle-related perks and abuses. Mayor Doug Wilder's double-dipping (he received a car and a car allowance), since rectified, remains in many people's memory. But there also has been the widespread abuse of gasoline credit cards and, seven years ago, the discovery that some City Council members -- and their liaisons -- essentially had adopted city vehicles as their own.

City officials seem to be addressing the issue. But they have been doing so at a pace that makes a tortoise look like a mongoose on benzedrine. It's time they stepped on the gas.