City unveils multi-year fleet plan to smooth replacements and reduce spikes in vehicle spending

Robert Woolley, fleet and facilities manager, presented a new fleet replacement strategy aimed at ‘‘smoothing’’ annual expenditures to avoid years with large, one-time spikes in vehicle purchases. Woolley told the council many municipal vehicles are well past useful life; several were 9–15 years old and some ‘‘almost 2 years past its useful life.’’

Why it matters: unpredictably large replacement years can force the city to seek debt financing or suddenly divert scarce general fund dollars; a steady, pay-as-you-go schedule improves predictability and lowers borrowing needs.

Woolley said the plan uses a scheduled approach so the city can ‘‘even it out’’ rather than face $3 million in one year and $100,000 the next. He described a pay-as-you-go approach for governmental fleet replacements while noting some enterprise (utility) fleets may still require debt financing and should be evaluated separately.

Utilities director (presenting fleet analysis for utilities) told council the four utility enterprises calculated an illustrative schedule that would require roughly $6.1 million annually in 2026 to sustain replacement without new borrowing; that amount would decline as current debt falls off. The utilities plan separates enterprise vehicle needs from the general fund, citing California rules restricting cross-subsidies between utilities and general fund accounts.

Council and staff discussed timing for purchases already financed (staff said recent vehicle purchases were financed and bills will be due when deliveries arrive later this spring). Woolley offered to provide the council the fleet replacement schedule and meet individually to walk through the spreadsheet.

Ending: Staff asked council for guidance on priorities if funding is constrained; Woolley and management services staff said they will provide the replacement schedule and continue to refine funding options.