City Manager Bill Brock said this will also be a reduction of one marked cruiser and one unmarked cruiser.
Brock said the monthly lease for one marked police cruiser is $1,169, which includes all of the additional equipment that the cruiser is outfitted with, such as light bars and sirens. He said the monthly lease for one unmarked vehicle is $488, which also includes any additional equipment.
Before leasing, Brock said the city would purchase two or three cruisers each year. However, after a cost-analysis study, the city found it would be better to lease cruisers rather than purchase.
Police Chief Bob Buchanan said the city gets a better trade-in value with three-year leases and lower vehicle miles. He said a new cruiser fully outfitted would cost about $49,000 each on the state purchasing contract or several thousand dollars less on a three-year lease.
The department started leasing unmarked vehicles in late 2014 that were delivered in early 2015, Buchanan said. In 2017, the department expanded that to marked cruisers on three-year leases. He said the newer vehicles on shorter leases also help with maintenance costs that usually come about after four to five years of heavy-duty police use.
After this round, Monroe will have a leased fleet of 11 marked cruisers and six unmarked cruisers. The city will only own one marked cruiser for the K-9 officer.
Brock said the city also leases several vehicles for fire administration, public works and code enforcement.
In separate emergency legislation, Monroe council also approved trading in the last four city-owned cruisers in order to lease a total of seven additional marked cruisers, including the last white cruiser in the fleet. The mileage on those cruisers, a 2016 Ford sedan and three 2017 Ford Explorers, range from 61,789 miles to 93,242 miles.
Both actions were designated as emergency measures as the manufacturer is planning on closing the production line down for these vehicles by the end of November.
Councilman Todd Hickman cast the only no votes on both legislative actions.
“The (city-owned) cars we are trading in are about three years old and I believe there are more years we can get out of them,” Hickman said. “I just think we waste too much money.”
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