Vehicle was scheduled to be replaced in 2017 and money had already been set aside; committee votes in favor of sending topic to full council for discussion
By Kellen Olshefski
SLN Staff
The City of Elkhorn Finance and Judicial Committee voted in favor of sending discussion on the possibility of purchasing a new administrative vehicle for the police department at its April 11.
The request to purchase the vehicle was brought up at the City of Elkhorn Common Council’s last meeting, at which time the council opted to send discussion back to the committee level to gather further information from Police Chief Joel Christensen, who was unable to attend that council meeting.
The council had discussed whether it made sense to purchase a new vehicle, moving the current police chief’s vehicle down to replace the administrative vehicle, which is currently leaking oil when it runs, or to spend the $1,000 to fix a car valued at $3,100. The vehicle which would be taken out of the city’s fleet is already scheduled for replacement in 2017.
The administrative vehicle to be taken out of the fleet is used seldom, primarily for training purposes, being driven an estimated 6,000 miles each year or so over the past 14 years.
“It’s certainly not going to be worth more money six months from now with another 3,000 to 6,000 miles on it,” Chairman Scott McClory said.
Tapson said Monday night it’s important to look at it as if it were someone’s vehicle.
“If you had a vehicle in which you had to put a third of its value to keep it on the road for one year, would you do that if you’re going to get rid of it anyway,” he said.
Alderman Tom Myrin said if it were his household, he’d fix the car, noting he owns older cars with a lot more miles that run fine.
“If I’m looking at spending $1,000 or $28,000, I’m leaning towards the $1,000,” he said.
Tapson reiterated the city is planning to replace the vehicle in 2017 anyways.
Alderman Michael Kluck asked how the car was running other than the oil leak, noting he’d hate to put $1,000 in it to find out there’s further problems with vehicle in just a few months.
McClory said as the vehicle has already been approved to be replaced in 2017, the committee really needed to only decide whether it would recommend to the full council it would replace the vehicle now, rather than in several months when 2017 rolls around.
“There’s already money set aside to replace the vehicle in 2017 versus spending $1,000 and keeping it running for a few more months,” he said. “I don’t know that I would spend $1,000 on a car that’s worth $3,000 when I have $28,000 ‘I’ve saved up.’”
The car would be outfitted as an unmarked squad car and would be used primarily for administrative purposes.
Tapson said Monday night the $28,000 is available now as the city has been putting money into a “sinking fund” over of the years, something they’ve been able to sustain over the past decade.
While they’re not able to do a true sinking fund, because of lack of resources, it has allowed the city to save up the money to replace vehicles such as this one.
Myrin said he feels it’s just a lot of money to be spent on a vehicle that’s a low priority, something that’s used for training purposes.
Tapson said the new vehicle would not be replacing the training car, but would actually replace the police chief’s vehicle. The chief’s current vehicle would then become the new training vehicle.
McClory said Monday night he recommends the topic be brought back to the full council rather than shutting it down at the committee level. This way, he said if there is a need for further discussion, it would allow all councilmember to weigh in on the topic.
A motion to further discuss the possibility of a new vehicle with the full council was passed unanimously by the committee. The council met Tuesday.
