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SAN BENITO — City Hall’s planning a “complete overhaul” of its fleet, entering into a lease agreement while purchasing some vehicles.
For years, the city wasn’t replacing enough of its vehicles, even using old vehicles for parts such as engines, Mayor Rick Guerra said Thursday.
“It’s a complete overhaul,” City Manager Fred Sandoval said in an interview. “We had a lot of vehicles that were way over their useful life.”
At the public works department, crews had been working without adequate vehicles, driving small trucks to haul heavy equipment, Guerra said.
“They’re pulling backhoes on small trucks,” he said.
For months, officials debated entering into a lease agreement, Guerra said.
“It was kicked back and forth — is it better to lease or buy,” he said in an interview. “We’re trying to figure out what’s the best option for every department. When you lease, it’s a little more.”
While leasing boosts vehicle prices, cars hold higher trade-in value while dealerships offer maintenance programs to help offset costs, Guerra said.
“You get a three- to five-year lease, you trade the car in and it’s still going to hold its value,” he said.
Late last year, officials purchased six Dodge Durangos while ordering three Chevrolet Tahoes, a Chevrolet Silverado and a Ford Explorer, Police Chief Mario Perea said, adding he did not have costs readily available.
Now, the department is planning to lease vehicles to begin rotating them while replacing cars “well over 100,000 miles,” he said.
“It helps us get a vehicle replacement program,” Perea said. “At the end of the lease, the vehicles are valued a little higher so we get more equity. We need these vehicle to provide adequate service to our citizens.”
Last month, city commissioners approved an open-end lease agreement with D&M Commercial Leasing, planning to lease 10 vehicles.
“We are not buying any autos at this point,” Sandoval told commissioners during an April 16 meeting. “We’re working on that. But this puts the agreement in place so that when and if we do buy, which is going to come sooner than later, we have this in place.”
During the meeting, commissioners also approved a bid from San Benito-based Boswell Elliff Ford, the low bidder among five dealerships presenting proposals for the city’s purchase of 14 vehicles tapped for the public works department.
“Those were good bids,” Sandoval told commissioners. “We are working on lowering the prices a little bit. There’s an option with them. We’re going to see how well (the city) negotiates that part of it and we may be using those prices for a few more vehicles that we’re purchasing for some of the departments — and again, we kept the money in San Benito, so it worked out really well.”
Among the 14 vehicles, officials are buying three Ford F-250 super cab trucks as part of a purchase to include half-ton pickup trucks and smaller pickup trucks, Sandoval said in an interview, adding he did not have purchase prices readily available.
During the meeting, Public Works Director Anibal Garcia told commissioners the department’s aging fleet was in poor condition.
“We currently are in a bind with those vehicles,” he said. “Our public works is also considered emergency responders as well so (we’re) just getting them up-to-date on these vehicles. We’re just making sure we get staff there safely.”
With the department’s fleet in poor condition, officials need more vehicles for the job, Garcia said.
“Our guys try to do the best they can and sometimes we have to do double rounds just to get to a job site,” he told commissioners. “Right now, we’re sometimes two, three employees to a vehicle. It’s not a safe way to travel around. We’re currently hauling around equipment with not the right vehicle, which could potentially cause safety issues. That’s our main priority — to keep our employees safe and our residents, because we’re traveling up and down our streets.”
