County Car Purchase Shifted Into Park Commissioners Ask To Know More About Extras
Four-wheel drive, air conditioning, an extended cab and cruise control. Add a gun rack and mud flaps, and it’d be a truck-lover’s dream.
But this 1997 Ford Ranger, and 19 other vehicles worth a total of $387,000, aren’t headed for private carports. They would have been added to Spokane County’s motor pool if county commissioners hadn’t stalled deals with Wendle Ford, Camp Chevrolet and Becker Buick/GMC on Tuesday.
Commissioner Kate McCaslin said she wouldn’t vote for the purchase because staff members haven’t given her a list of all county employees who use cars, those who get to take them home, and the justification for both groups.
She requested that information two weeks ago. It’s still being gathered, said county engineer Bill Johns, who is responsible for the vehicles in the motor pool. Except for his own employees, Johns doesn’t decide what cars to order or who gets what.
McCaslin said she wondered why bid specifications put out by the purchasing department called for so many extra-cost features.
Nine of the cars and trucks were ordered with optional cruise control that adds $225 to the cost. Eleven would have air conditioning, at about $700 each.
“If your goal in ordering a Suburban is to have extra space, then why are you ordering bucket seats,” a $456 option, asked McCaslin.
Commissioner Phil Harris, who voted to go ahead with the purchase rather than leave the Public Works Department short of vehicles, said the split seats would allow road-survey crews to carry long items.
“They could put them on the roof,” said Commissioner John Roskelley, who voted against the bid, at least until Johns can answer some of McCaslin’s questions.
Some vehicles, like the appropriately-named GMC Safari for animal control officers, were ordered without options.
Others would come with extras that don’t cost extra. That includes the electric windows and doors in the Ford Tauruses for Geiger Corrections Center or cloth seats in two Rangers for building inspectors.
Johns said some of his staff use their county vehicles as offices and need air conditioning and the extra space behind a pickup’s seats.
Cruise control saves gas on long drives, he noted, and all the options add to the vehicle’s value when they’re past their prime and the county must sell them.
Johns said the county typically buys some new vehicles in the spring, then uses its oldest cars and trucks for seasonal work crews in summer. Most of those old vehicles are auctioned off the following fall.
If commissioners don’t buy new rigs this spring, Johns said, he won’t have enough vehicles for this year’s temporary workers.
, DataTimes