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Onley council weighs repurposing unused 2017 police SUV for town use; asks for cost estimate
Summary
Mayor Henry E. Finney and Chief E.J. Long discussed using a 2017 Ford police vehicle for general-government duties. Council expressed concerns about equipment-removal costs, public perception and liability and instructed the chief to obtain a price for conversion to report at the March meeting.
Mayor Henry E. Finney asked Chief of Police E.J. Long whether the department had a patrol car the town could use for general-government purposes. Chief Long said the department had "the 2017 Ford that is not being used at this time" and that radios would need to be removed and a new center console purchased and installed.
Councilmember Jason Campbell noted lights and cameras would also have to be removed; Chief Long agreed. Chief Long estimated that about "75% of the equipment will be reusable," but said he could not provide a firm cost estimate for conversion. He also told the council he had received three additional resumes for police vacancies and that two appeared to be viable candidates.
Vice-Mayor Bill Ferguson said he believed it would be "shortsighted" to decommission a police car, arguing that removing a marked vehicle could send the wrong message about the department and that the town should "bite the bullet" and buy a marked town vehicle for staff instead. Councilmember Rodney Lang said his concern centered on the possibility of an employee being in an accident while conducting town business.
Councilmember Daniel Bloxom raised a cost-effectiveness point, saying that at $0.70 per mile an employee would need to drive almost 15,000 miles per year for buying a new vehicle to pay off; Town Manager Susan Rillo responded that she had driven "less than seven miles" for town business in January. The mileage calculation was presented as an estimate during council discussion and was not supported in the minutes by department-by-department mileage records.
Council instructed Chief Long to contact Eric Nottingham to obtain a price to remove the police equipment from the 2017 Ford Explorer and to install a new center console; the council agreed to revisit the matter at its March meeting.
The discussion was deliberative and operational; no formal motion to decommission or to purchase a replacement vehicle was recorded in the minutes.
