Hunt County approves replacement sheriff vehicles, contingent on accounting change and auditor review

Hunt County Commissioners Court approved the purchase of replacement vehicles for several precincts, the sheriff’s office and county facilities on May 27, 2025, but made the approvals contingent on correcting accounting line-item codes and resolving questions from the county auditor.

The court approved consent items 4–7 with a condition that the line-item numbers be changed so the last four digits read "4200" and that the auditor be satisfied that the lease and maintenance charges are properly recorded. Judge Stovall described the motion and the court adopted it after a second and voice vote.

The order continues the county’s multiyear fleet plan that Judge Stovall said began about five years ago with Enterprise Fleet Management. "We adopted a plan with the Enterprise Vehicles approximately 4 or 5 years ago," Stovall said, explaining the county had an average vehicle age of "18 and a half years" before the plan. He said Enterprise manages fleet maintenance, tracks mileage and helps preserve resale value when vehicles are sold.

Stovall explained that some sheriff’s units are excluded from the company maintenance program because of the higher wear from emergency use. He said vehicles identified for replacement in the first four-year lease cycle are being rotated out before they reach zero resale value and that past sale proceeds have sometimes been credited against lease payments or returned to the general fund. "Most of those vehicles have been selling from 10 to $20,000," he said.

The court also discussed downsizing some facilities vehicles — for example replacing large vans with 3/4- or 1/2-ton trucks or smaller pickups and buying lighter vehicles for routine maintenance work to save fuel and right-size department fleets. Stovall said the budget already anticipates sale proceeds and that the replacements should not create a large new budget impact.

Commissioners asked for clarification about whether maintenance costs were bundled into leases or billed separately. Stovall said maintenance is managed and billed through the lease arrangement so that routine service, oil changes and tire rotations are handled and tracked by the vendor.

The court flagged that some purchases would be made using SB22 funds — a state grant program for small counties — and noted those SB22-funded sheriff vehicles have restrictions attached. Stovall said SB22 has historically applied to counties under a 300,000 population threshold and that legislative proposals may shift that threshold, but he did not give a firm statutory citation.

The approvals will proceed once the auditor’s questions are resolved and the line-item coding is corrected; no additional policy change was adopted at the meeting.