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Cochise County reviews fleet charges, replacement policy and underutilized vehicles
Summary
Public works staff told supervisors the county’s fleet is funded by interdepartmental fleet charges, replacement reserves and grants; staff are tracking underutilized vehicles and plan to adjust per‑mile replacement charges to reflect rising vehicle costs.
Jason Fazio and Joe Hutchison outlined Cochise County’s light and heavy fleet finances, replacement practices and planned changes to per‑mile charges during a public works work session.
Fazio said fleet management charges come from other departments — highways, solid waste and general‑fund departments such as the sheriff — and that vehicle replacement funds are collected through per‑mile charges. “We have some replacement vehicles that are expiring,” Fazio said, noting several sheriff grant vehicles will substitute for planned county purchases this year and reduce capital outlay by roughly $500,000.
On current cost recovery, Fazio said the county’s traditional collection rate of about $0.17 per mile for replacement is no longer sufficient because vehicle prices and up‑fit costs have risen. “We really should be collecting closer to 45¢ or 44¢ a mile somewhere in there,” he said when discussing pursuit‑capable vehicles; he noted a more likely near‑term adjustment for sedans would move replacement charges into the low‑to mid‑20¢ range.
The supervisors discussed options to prolong vehicle service life, repurpose higher‑mileage pursuit vehicles to lower‑use county functions, and “mothball” surplus assets instead of immediate sale. Hutchison and Fazio described practices to repurpose vehicles as “hand‑me‑downs” to departments with lower annual mileage so the county can extract more service before replacement.
Fazio said the county uses auctions for surplus units but that sales performance varies when many identical vehicles are listed at once; he said a staggered auction and better advertising improved outcomes in recent trials.
Staff also described an underutilized‑vehicle report they are building to identify county vehicles that log fewer than 2,000–5,000 miles per year and to recommend reassigning or selling those units. The county maintains a motor pool and allows personal‑vehicle reimbursement at the federal mileage rate for limited uses, but staff said liability and optics favor using county vehicles for on‑duty trips.
Capital and heavy‑fleet plans noted in the presentation included planned in‑frame overhauls, a replacement roll‑off truck and contingency for a compressor at the fleet shop. Staff recommended returning to supervisors with a proposed per‑mile charge adjustment and more granular accounting rollups so the board can see fleet costs by department and the net general‑fund impact.
