CLEARLAKE – Clearlake's interim police chief on Thursday received a unanimous vote from the City Council to institute a new vehicle replacement policy.
The new police department policy is intended to save the city money and ensure officer and public safety, said Chief Larry Todd, who took over as chief on a temporary basis in January.
“This is the first city I've worked for that did not have a policy for vehicle replacement or equipment replacement," Todd told the council March 22.
Todd told the council that the department has traditionally budgeted between $60,000 and $80,000 annually to purchase used California Highway Patrol vehicles.
CHP sells the vehicles, Todd said, after the state rules them no longer fit for public safety use.
Those cars, he said, were usually purchased for about $5,000 each, with an additional $3,000 put into making them road ready. Most of the cars, he added, had about 100,000 miles on them when they went into CPD's service.
“They're wore out when we get them,” he said.
Most were then passed down to Community Patrol volunteers, Todd said, with between 170,000 and 180,000 miles on the vehicles at that point. Many of the cars have been in the police fleet for upwards of 10 years, he added.
The end result, said Todd, is that those aging cars are costing the city between $100,000 and $150,000 annually to maintain.
The department now has 50 vehicles, he said, many of which are assigned to Community Patrol members, who take them home.
But with Community Patrol being dissolved in favor of a new police volunteer program, Todd no longer intends to let the vehicles go home with private citizens, which he said is a liability issue.
Instead, he intends to sell or send the more battered vehicles to the wrecking yard. He estimated he can reduce the police department's fleet by 20 cars while still ensuring that each of the department's 27 officers still have a police car assigned to them.
Todd said the city has a moral and legal responsibility to provide its officers with vehicles that are safe to operate.
City Administrator Dale Neiman agreed, saying the issue was a high priority. He added his concern that the cars' poor condition could lead to a higher likelihood of accidents.
Todd said the CHP each year goes through a bid process for law enforcement vehicles with different manufacturers, and has awarded the state's bid to Ford.
He proposed leasing four marked 2007 Ford Crown Victoria patrol cars from the county's only Ford dealership, Holder Ford-Mercury in Lakeport, at a cost of $23,995 each; one unmarked 2007 Crown Victoria for $22,265; and five unmarked 2008 Ford Tauruses, priced at $22,533 each.
Those cars, he said, will have special law enforcement packages, which are specifically designed for high speed pursuits and law enforcement's more strenuous uses.
Todd suggested staggering car purchases over two-year cycles, so that within six to eight years the fleet will have been completely replaced.
The vehicle policy sets a schedule for vehicle replacement; it specifies that, after four years, police cars be rotated to code enforcement officers for another four years of use.
Todd said there is some flexibility built in, with the department chief needing to do regular cost analyses of whether or not to keep the vehicles for longer or shorter periods of time. Some of the factors to consider will be the cars' repair records, overall condition, and efficiency and safety.
That, he said, will help avoid having a “rolling piece of junk" that will cost a lot to maintain.
“I think this program is long overdue," said Mayor Judy Thein, who used to work in the city's finance department and said she knew well of the expense required to maintain the older, battered vehicles. “We have bought junk and junk and more junk."
She added, “If we keep our officers safe, they will keep us safe.”
Todd also suggested the city consider an equipment replacement fund, not just for vehicles but for computers and other city equipment. He said the city could annually pay into the fund and then be able to afford buying equipment outright, which would save it interest.
When questioned by a citizen about whether or not he had considered alternative fuel vehicles for the fleet, Todd said that he had done so while police chief in Los Gatos. He called his experience with natural gas vehicles “a dismal failure.”
However, he didn't discount alternative fuel vehicles joining the city's fleet in the future. “I just don't think that we're there yet," he said.
The council approved the new vehicle policy unanimously.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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