City staff review five-year fleet leasing program after pandemic delays, higher costs

Madeline, staff member, told the city work session that staff completed a five-year review of the Vehicle and Equipment Replacement Fund, or VERF, which the city uses to lease and replace municipal vehicles. She said the original 2020 plan anticipated leasing 27 "white fleet" vehicles and did not include police cars; the program timeline and costs shifted after pandemic-related supply and pricing disruptions and an expansion to include police vehicles.

Nut graf: The review found that the city’s leased fleet grew faster and larger than the original model and lease expenditures rose substantially; staff said they would continue regular monitoring and make operational contributions align more closely with projected fund needs. Madeline said the city had seen measurable savings in fuel and reduced staff time spent coordinating repairs, but maintenance savings fell short of initial expectations.

Staff findings and numbers: Madeline, staff member, told the board the original enterprise-proposed acquisition schedule planned for a phased rollout that would have reached 27 leased white-fleet vehicles; because of delays and later expansion to police, the city had 36 leased vehicles as of February 2023, 38 as of February 2025, and three city-owned vehicles for a total fleet of 41. She said the plan had expected lease expenditures to peak at about $215,000 annually under pre-pandemic assumptions; current proposed 2025 lease expenditures were roughly $450,000. Madeline said, "We went on to lease 2 more, as of 02/2025. So we have 38, and then we also have 3 city owned vehicles for a total of 41 vehicles in our fleet."

On savings, Madeline said the leasing program produced a fuel savings of about 26 percent versus the originally projected 20 percent; maintenance savings were roughly 30 percent compared with an early estimate of 68 percent because police vehicle maintenance remained the city’s responsibility and the fleet was larger than originally modeled. She summarized: "Again, projected at that 31%, we have achieved 28%." The presentation also noted staff spend less time coordinating repairs because enterprise handles much of the maintenance coordination.

Discussion and next steps: Staff and board members discussed trade-offs between replacing vehicles more frequently (which Enterprise’s schedule would require) and higher lease payments; Rick, staff member, said the city must "manage those costs while we keep those things running," and that the city will review VERF on a regular basis, biannually or quarterly. Staff recommended using departmental transfers to seed ongoing operations, returning any sale equity to the fund balance rather than relying on sales as a dependable annual revenue source.

Context and limits: Presenters repeatedly framed the results as a response to changing market conditions and an expanded fleet; they did not propose immediate new policy changes or ask the board to adopt new ordinances during the session. Madeline said the 2025 lease expenditure figure was a proposed number and "might change." The presentation identified lessons learned (monitoring, aligning operational contributions to projections, and discussing right-sizing vehicles for departments) and said staff will continue conversations with Enterprise Fleet Management.

Ending: Staff closed by asking for questions and said they would share supporting materials, including the original enterprise vehicle list and visuals of the acquisition schedule, to help board members compare original and actual outcomes.