In an effort to get the Dona Ana County vehicle fleet up to date and keep it that way, the Dona Ana County Commission is looking to create a vehicle replacement plan and schedule.
The Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Department has had a highly publicized vehicle shortage, but vehicles throughout the County’s departments need to be replaced. County Commissioner Billy Garrett says the county needs to create a strategic plan to keep track of replacements.
“If we don’t do that then what happens is you could often get behind in terms of the condition of the vehicles you need,” Garrett said. “On the other hand, you also have the risk of getting vehicles before you need to replace other ones, and so you can be spending more money than you really need to.”
The Commission heard varying numbers of how many vehicles the county actually owns, and how many of those are in need of replacement. Commissioner Ben Rawson says they need an accurate record of the vehicles they own.
“I think we are still struggling to find out exactly how many vehicles we have,” Rawson said. “What departments they are in, and what condition they are to be replaced.”
Rawson says once they know what vehicles they have, then a plan could be beneficial.
“We need to have a plan that says,” Rawson said. “Here’s the retirement of the vehicles, here’s how we’re going to replace them and have a strategy to that, I think that’s very important. But I think it’s hard with the information we were given today to be able to formulate that strategy.
Commissioner Garrett says his failed resolution to create a plan for the management of county vehicles should be re-introduced to help determine the state of the county fleet.
“The purpose of that particular resolution was to make sure that we have a fleet management program,” Garrett said. “That would provide us with all the information about every vehicle., and on the basis of that we would actually understand condition and use, and life expectancy of vehicles. And when something goes bad, you’ve got a lemon you can flag that, but you need to have all that stuff coordinated in one place.”
For fiscal year 2017, the Commission is planning on replacing 50 vehicles throughout the county, which will cost approximately $3.6 million. Garrett said this cost should fit into the budget.
