County Administrator outlines proposed fleet charge-back policy to departments

County Administrator Jim Grafton laid out a proposed charge-back approach for Rock Island County's Fleet Operations at the March 9 Public Works and Facilities Committee meeting. He said the intent is to charge departments a market-comparable labor rate and parts cost so internal repairs are comparable to private maintenance. "What we want to charge back to the respective departments is the reflective costs if they were to go out for private repair and maintenance on each vehicle," Grafton said.

Grafton proposed a labor rate "around $150 per hour and parts that would reflect our cost plus a minimum mark-up right around 30%." He clarified that facility-level costs such as parking-lot or roof repairs would not be passed back to departments that have no control over those expenses. On utilization targets, Grafton said the breakeven point is "somewhere around 4 hours per mechanic per day on an 8-hour day," meaning roughly 50% of a mechanic's time would need to be charged to departments to cover operating costs.

Grafton illustrated the operational rationale with an equipment-maintenance example: "For example, a police car in Coal Valley had to have an engine replaced because for an oil change they went by mileage even though the car sat and idled for hours." He said in-house fleet staff are certified to do warranty and outfitting work (light bars, radios, computers) and that providing those services internally improves response time compared with some private vendors. The committee moved to consider the charge-back process; a formal motion to advance the proposal was carried by voice vote.