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Fleet staff ask committee to fund toolboxes, Snap-on scan tool, AC replacement and pickup
Summary
City fleet staff asked the Finance Committee to include in the capital budget funds to replace an aging break-room AC unit, buy seven technician toolboxes plus one for an equipment service worker, purchase a Snap-on on-road diagnostic scan tool for new patrol vehicles and acquire a pickup truck to replace a 2003 Expedition.
Blake, a city staff member, told the Finance Committee at its Sept. 18 special meeting that fleet staff are seeking multiple capital and equipment items to keep the shop operational and to aid recruitment and retention.
The most immediate request is replacement of the shop break-room and locker-room air-conditioning unit. “It is the original unit from when the shop was built,” Blake said, adding the unit is currently being limped along and that he has a quote from “Mr. Garrett.”
Blake also asked the committee to fund a Snap-on on-road diagnostic scan tool compatible with the city’s newer patrol vehicles, saying the fleet’s existing scan tool “can't do on road diagnostics” and that the new tool supports data logging and on-road diagnostics. He said the tool is necessary because newer vehicles require updated diagnostic capability.
The largest personnel-related request was for toolboxes and a full set of tools for each technician: seven technician toolboxes plus one toolbox for the equipment service worker. Blake said the city recently hired two positions — one auto technician and one equipment service worker — and declined one candidate because the worker would have had to buy his own tools. He told the committee that a technician without tools faces a “minimum 15 to $20,000 out the gate” to equip themselves and that an employer-provided toolbox is a significant recruiting tool. “If we could do this, it would be a huge asset to us,” Blake said.
Blake described how the city would manage the tools: the tools would remain city property, be inventoried monthly and would not be a take-home, loaner or cross-department program. He said the selected tool sets include lifetime warranties and that broken items would be replaced under that warranty.
On vehicles, Blake requested purchase of a pickup truck to replace a 2003 Expedition to serve as a shop supervisor’s take-home, on-call vehicle. He said staff will handle pricing and procurement as part of the budget process.
Discussion and next steps: committee members asked about storage and inventory of the toolboxes and Blake confirmed each technician would have an assigned box kept at the shop and subject to monthly inventory. The fleet requests were presented as budget line items to be considered in the upcoming budget hearings; no formal vote on the requests took place at the Sept. 18 meeting.
Ending: The fleet requests will be considered in the next round of budget hearings and committee reviews that immediately follow the city’s scheduled budget hearing. The committee did not make a final funding decision during the Sept. 18 meeting.
