Fleet plan phases out Dodges

The nine vehicles the Garland County Sheriff’s Department received preliminary approval to purchase next year represent the largest capital outlay in the fleet-management plan the department began two years ago.

The Finance Committee of the Garland County Quorum Court gave a do-pass recommendation earlier this month to the $4,879,892 budget the sheriff’s department requested for next year. It includes $259,198 for six Ford sport utility vehicle police interceptors, a four-wheel drive Ford pickup, a four-wheel drive Chevrolet Tahoe and a Dodge Durango.

Under Sheriff Jason Lawrence told the committee fewer vehicles will be required in 2019 as part of the plan the department started in 2016 to contain rising parts and

repair costs. It calls for the replacement of vehicles with more than 150,000 miles. Lawrence told the committee vehicles with 165,000 to 200,000 miles will be replaced by the nine new vehicles in the department’s 2018 budget.

According to the county’s

2016 and 2017 budget books, three trucks and two SUVs were purchased last year for

$147,612, and seven Ford SUV interceptors were purchased this year for $184,100.

The nine vehicles budgeted for next year represent half of the $522,573 in capital costs the committee approved for next year’s General Fund budget.

“This will be the pinnacle of what you will see,” Lawrence told the committee. “We’re requesting nine vehicles this year. After this, the numbers will start going down.”

The $62,000 allocated to the department’s parts and repairs line item marks a reduction of almost one-third from the $81,598 allocated for the current year. Lawrence attributed the lower cost to the fleet having fewer high-mileage vehicles.

“Hopefully we’ll see a reduction again in 2019, and hopefully as we progress it will go down even more,” he told the committee.

Lawrence said the department is looking for a fourwheel drive Ford pickup on the state contract price list instead of another Dodge Ram. The department told the committee the trucks were the cheapest law enforcement vehicles under state contracting pricing when it requested three of them in its 2016 budget.

“We’ve been going with Dodge vehicles forever through the state contract,” Lawrence told the committee earlier this month. “What we are seeing with the (Rams) right now is that we are having to replace engines between the 80,000 and 100,000 mile mark.”

The department began moving away from Dodge Chargers last year, a shift it told the committee was the result of numerous recalls Dodge had issued and the Charger’s low clearance exposing its undercarriage to damage on rural, uneven roads.

Lawrence said the Ford SUV interceptors the department purchased this year have performed well. They have also proven to be safe, he said, noting a deputy was unharmed after a wreck that required the insurer to declare the vehicle a total loss.

“They have good fuel economy,” Lawrence said. “They do have a smaller tank, so you have to fuel up more. Other than that, our people love them. They give you the ability to go off road. Instead of scraping like the Charger, they have a little bit of elevation.”

Installing the new vehicles with radios that are part of the county’s more than $5 million communications upgrade accounts for most of the

30-percent increase to the department’s small equipment line item, Lawrence told the committee. Small equipment costs budgeted for next year rose to $58,500.

The department’s almost

$4.9 million General Fund-supported budget is about 10-percent less than the $5.4 million approved for the current year. The difference is partially the result of the county transferring responsibility for its dispatch operation from the sheriff to the office of emergency management next year.

The salaries and benefits of more than a dozen dispatchers were transferred to the 911 Dispatch Center Budget, a newly created General Fund account associated with the new dispatch center the county is building in the old detention center.

The Finance Committee gave a do-pass recommendation to the dispatch center’s

$862,230 budget, which includes salaries and benefits for

14 dispatchers and a $52,000 salary for a dispatch manager.

A $314,574 transfer from the county’s Emergency 911 Fund to the General Fund will subsidize the dispatch center. The emergency fund is primarily supported by the surcharge phone providers collect for statewide 911 operations.

The sheriff’s and dispatch center budgets do not include the 2-percent cost-of-living adjustment the Finance Committee advanced to the full quorum court, which will consider all of the county’s 2018 budgets later this year.