Tabitha Miller and fleet staff presented the fleet replacement plan and said the department’s request focuses on replacements rather than new assets, while acknowledging rising equipment prices and a large overall replacement need across the city.

“This entire budget is all replacement items this year. There is no additions,” fleet staff said, noting the department maintains roughly 1,100 assets and estimating a full replacement cost far above current requests.

Details:
- Inventory and replacement strategy: staff reported approximately 1,100 assets city-wide; if every asset were replaced today the cost would be roughly $68 million in current-market terms. Fleet is spreading large purchases over multiple years to avoid steep year-to-year budget spikes.
- Major fire apparatus: the ladder purchase is on a multi‑year payment schedule (staff said subsequent apparatus purchases are similarly spaced); the next engine is currently three years out but procurement timelines have lengthened because of manufacturing lead times.
- Trade-ins and lifecycle: the city uses trade-ins where possible and keeps vehicles in service long enough to maximize value, sometimes reallocating retired frontline vehicles to lower-intensity city uses before final disposition.
- Snow and operations: fleet and operations teams are adjusting routes to address growth and new east-side service needs without adding fleet expansion this year; the city maintains a staging/operations location on the east side to support response.

Ending: staff said they will monitor lead times and reorder schedules and return with procurement timelines and expected reserve values for traded assets.