City officials say $50 million in aging vehicles needs a multi-year funding plan

Cincinnati City Councils Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee heard on-the-record estimates that about $50 million of city vehicles meet replacement criteria and that addressing the backlog will require sustained capital increases.

Liam Norton, the citys fleet division manager, told the committee the general-fund fleet includes about 1,830 assets valued above $5,000 and 955 smaller components, and that staff consolidated roughly 1,900 class codes down to about 105 to improve lifecycle forecasting. He said the city flags vehicles for replacement when they meet two of three criteria: age, mileage and life-to-date maintenance cost.

"Equipment that meets two out of three criteria is considered out of life cycle and ready for replacement," Norton said, explaining the methodology used to prioritize scarce replacement capital. He and other presenters said 120 pieces of equipment met all three replacement criteria (about $17.8 million in value) and 331 pieces met two out of three (about $42.5 million), leaving a large pool of replacement-eligible assets.

The presenters said procurement lead times vary widely: passenger vehicles often arrive in 36 months, police interceptors 1014 months, garbage trucks up to 24 months, and fire apparatus and medic units can take 2436 months. Those long lead times, they said, create a gap between when replacements are funded and when they enter service.

Vice Chair Mark Jeffries and other council members pressed staff for a five-year projection and stressed operational risks posed by aging fire pumpers and ladder trucks. Norton said existing data supports a 6-year capital projection to begin addressing the backlog but emphasized that additional data refinement is under way.

Council members also discussed procurement successes, including sourcing 70 police interceptors through a state contract and placing many of them into service, and asked staff to return during budget season with a deeper five-year plan and options for bonding or other one-time capital approaches.

The discussion included specific equipment choices: the fleet team said it aims to spend no less than 90% of replacement capital on "essential fleet" (vehicles providing basic services such as fire, police, trash collection and road repair) and to dedicate the remaining capital to lower-dollar, high-use equipment.

Council members urged an initial infusion of capital to get the replacement program back to a proactive footing. "An initial influx of capital to try to get us back to ground zero," Norton said, would then allow the city to plan purchases so replacements arrive before vehicles fully reach end-of-life.

The committee directed staff to bring the fleet presentation back during budget season for more detailed planning and possible funding scenarios.

Ending

Council members praised recent data improvements and asked staff to return with a five-year replacement assessment and clear options for reducing the $50 million backlog.