Ann Arbor City Council approves $103K purchase of five new police patrol cars
The Ann Arbor Police Department will be able to add five new patrol cars to its fleet after the City Council voted 7-0 on the $103,650 expense Tuesday night.
The five 2011 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors, priced at $20,730 each, will be purchased from Signature Ford of Owosso.
Ann Arbor police officers soon will have five new patrol cars to use.
File photo
"This seems like a pretty good price for five patrol cars," Mayor John Hieftje said, getting verbal agreement from City Administrator Roger Fraser.
Fraser said there's a chance the city may buy only four of the vehicles from Ford because the city is interested in buying one of the new Chevrolet police vehicles coming out this year.
Matt Kulhanek, the city's fleet and facilities manager, said in a memo to council members that the city normally uses a six-category evaluation when a vehicle comes up on the city's replacement schedule. That includes the vehicle's age, miles/hours of use, type of service, reliability, maintenance and repair cost, and general condition.
A point score is given in each category and any vehicle with a total score over 23 is then brought in for inspection by a team of fleet mechanics. However, the city's labor contracts with the Ann Arbor Police Officers Association and the Ann Arbor Police Supervisors require that vehicles used by their members will not be driven more than 80,000 miles or six years, whichever comes first, and are not run through the evaluation process. The five Crown Victorias will replace police patrol cars that will have reached the 80,000 miles or the six-year age limit in the next year, Kulhanek said. City officials noted the Crown Victoria police patrol model produces the same or less greenhouse gas emissions and has the same or better fuel economy as other full-sized cars equipped with the same eight-cylinder engine. In addition, the Crown Victoria is the only police patrol vehicle with an eight-cylinder engine that is approved to use E-85 fuel. Kulhanek said the purchase follows the guidelines of the city's Green Fleet Policy to reduce the amount of fuel used and to pay a premium for "greener" vehicles if necessary.
City officials recently were presented options for trimming $2.2 million from the police department's budget over the next two years to address city budget shortfalls. That includes eliminating several positions and reorganizing the department.
Fraser said Tuesday night that the city probably can expect to lose out on at least $500,000 a year and as much as $1.7 million a year if Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's state budget is approved by the Legislature. That would mean even more cuts to city services.
Council Members Stephen Rapundalo, Christopher Taylor, Marcia Higgins and Carsten Hohnke were absent from Tuesday's meeting.
Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.
Comments
xsnrg454
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 5:51 p.m.
These cars serve a different purpose that the 1983 Volvo wagon you take to Whole Foods once a week.
god's hammer
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 6:33 p.m.
BTY 6.0 Power Stroke chipped and reprogramed and running on bio diesel. 30 mpg highway. If the city needs any 350 pound hooligans taken to jail they can let me know.
god's hammer
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 6:20 p.m.
03' F250 crew cab, the wagon is in the shop.
god's hammer
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 2:24 p.m.
There is no reason that A2 could not lead the way and use smaller cars for it's police work. In Europe smaller cars like the Ford Focus are used all the time. These cars have have smaller less polluting 4 cylinder engines that still can do over 100 mph. Lets get real for a moment people, Ann Arbor police never go over 100 MPH, and never should in a city. The Ford Fusion Hybrid would also make sense. Ford Crown Victoria's are basically Lincoln Towncars, old bulky luxury V8's that waste gas and cant handle well (compared to a Ford Focus or Fusion.). Lets get with the times A2! Show an example. Lets not discount the "cool factor" of having our city showcase a fleet of smaller more "european" police car force. The city of Aspen Colorado (using Saabs) is an example of this. I for one believe using a Ford Focus (35 mpg) built right down the road in Wayne Michigan is a better option the a Lincoln Towncar (16 mpg) built in Canada.
BornNRaised
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 5:13 p.m.
Or, we can all go hug a tree, not arrest any criminals, and live in perfect harmony. Now for the rest of us that live in the world of reality...
god's hammer
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 5:01 p.m.
Or better yet, rent a u haul
god's hammer
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 4:28 p.m.
Not to mention they cost $6000 less to buy and use 1/2 the gas over the life of the car. Oh and all the 350 pound people could be put in a Ford Transit Connect van 26 mpg.
jcj
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 3:26 p.m.
What do they do when they have a 350 lb person they have to transport? Now do we also have to buy patty wagons to transport?
jcj
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 12:41 p.m.
Too bad we are not getting support from local dealers. Maybe the citizens of Ann Arbor need to go to Owosso to buy our personal vehicles!
Awakened
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 12:07 p.m.
I replied to a couple of individual comments and then realized that most people got this wrong, or the article could have been more clear. The cars are kept longer than 80,000 miles. The limit of 80,000 miles is for police use. Union limits are negotiated to prevent "unsafe working conditions" because police vehicles are used in ways most cars are not. They idle longer and run many more hours than the milage suggests. And without warning must be capable of driving at very high speeds (100+ mph) over a variety of surfaces. Once the contractual limit is reached the cars are re-assigned to other city uses until worn out.
jcj
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 3:20 a.m.
As a few others have mentioned 80,000 miles is not much on a vehicle these days. Back in the 60's or 70's you felt lucky to get 100,000 miles on a vehicle. "However, the city's labor contracts with the Ann Arbor Police Officers Association and the Ann Arbor Police Supervisors require that vehicles used by their members will not be driven more than 80,000 miles or six years, whichever comes first" How old is this part of the collective bargaining agreement? Has it been part of the agreement since the 60's? Are the people in this town ready to get rid of collective bargaining?
Jon Saalberg
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 12:05 a.m.
Little confused here - the link goes to a story about the new Ford Interceptor story, which is a car is based on the new Taurus - it is not a Crown Victoria, which has been put out to pasture. What is the city getting - "old" new Crown Vics or "new" new Interceptors? Need to know what to be on the look out for in those revenue enhancement zones.
Ryan J. Stanton
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 2:12 a.m.
Oops. Grabbed the wrong link. Try now.
snoopdog
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 1:50 a.m.
They are the old body style Ford Crown Vic. The new body style you are thinking of is the 2012 Taurus Interceptor. A2 bought the 2011, plus the 2012 would have been around 8 grand more per car at the minmum. Ford Motor Company has around an 8 grand rebate on the old Crown Vic to move em on out.
bob
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 12:04 a.m.
Police do not put just "normal" mileage on their cars. Do you want the police officer responding to your emergency with lights & sirens to break down? Police cars need to be in tip top performance. Most municipalities "reassign" the old police cars to municipal officials (ie building dept or other dept requiring vehicles.) Maybe Ryan could comment on what happens to decommissioned police vehicles.
1bit
Wed, Feb 23, 2011 : 11:47 p.m.
Those who don't know about cars need not comment here. Police interceptors are not normal cars and are not driven normally. They are not going to last 150,000 miles (in fact, most cars do not). It is lucky to get these cars at this price. The only criticism is the Crown Vic is being phased out, but that's probably why A2 got them so cheap.
grye
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 1:50 p.m.
If police interceptors are not normal cars, then why is the Ann Arbor Police Department purchasing abnormal cars? The majority of the time, these cars are driven around town, hopefully at the posted speed limit. There are times that the officer must put the pedal to the metal, but I do the same thing on a daily basis when entering the highways. Change the oil, perform preventative maintenance, make the necessary repairs, and these cars will last a long time (or until an officer wrecks it). Resale ? Minimal concern.
1bit
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 3:32 a.m.
Not true. Most police cars are replaced at about 100,000 miles. Sure, you can "baby them" and make 'em go longer if you have to but it's not necessarily the number of miles that matters but what you were doing with those miles. Moreover, there are other issues that come into play, such as resale value, that determines the timeframe on when to replace the car.
snoopdog
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 1:46 a.m.
That is rubbish 1bit. A police car will easily run to 150k , many police departments put that many miles on them in just two years. They use synthetic oil and maintain them at the "severe" level of service in the owners manual. A2 City Council is nuts, they didn't need new cars but they did get them cheap.
glacialerratic
Wed, Feb 23, 2011 : 11 p.m.
Hey, who's going to drive the cars?
xmo
Wed, Feb 23, 2011 : 11 p.m.
Thinking out of the box: The City should buy cars that produce more GREEN HOUSE gases so that way they will not have to also buy expensive snow plow equipment due to Global Warming!
Mike Martin
Wed, Feb 23, 2011 : 10:59 p.m.
Grye is correct. 80,000 miles is not enough on a car owned by the taxpayers. Proper maintenance will keep a car in good working order well beyond that. Of course, that's exactly what I would expect from a labor union negotiated contract. And, that sort of waste is why many of us are increasingly sick of paying union labor with our tax dollars.
noreaster
Wed, Feb 23, 2011 : 10:50 p.m.
$103,650, sure. Not a penny more to get those cars rolling. The lights, sirens, and radios come for free, right? Oops, not right. Just moving the old electronics over will cost thousands more. But will it be the old stuff, or bought new? And why the 80K mile limit? There's this concept of preventative maintenance that extends the life of things... unless the users beat them to death, of course. Could that be the case here?
Awakened
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 12:02 p.m.
Again, the article isn't clear on this. The cars are driven over 80,000. Just not by the PD. The concern is that the cars be capable of the 100+ mph use they are occasionally subjected to. Unions, in addition to negotiating pay and benefits, have this funny fetish about preventing 'unsafe working conditions.' Once the limit is reached the cars are re-assigned to other City departments until worn out.
nowayjose
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 12:01 a.m.
Moving the electronics cost nothing. They are installed by city employees. So it's a built in cost. They are already being paid
arearesident
Wed, Feb 23, 2011 : 10:24 p.m.
The fire department has to lose five people, but he police get new vehicles? That money could go a long way towards keeping the current vehicles serviceable. If the new vehicles are truly needed, they should come from a Washtenaw County dealer, unless there is a significant difference in price.
grye
Wed, Feb 23, 2011 : 10:06 p.m.
Now that I have read the entire story, the labor contract needs to change. Vehicles last much longer now than just a few years ago. Most vehicles, if properly maintained, will easily surpass 150,000 miles. To sell a vehicle at 80,000 miles or 6 years is definitely not getting my taxpayers dollars out of it. I usually keep a car for 10 to 15 years. Come on Ann Arbor (and the labor unions), let's not waste hard earned taxpayer dollars.
Awakened
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 11:57 a.m.
Like many urban police departments the lower milage is to assure that the vehicle is still capable of high speed driving/manuevering. When the PD is done with them other city departments use the car until it reaches the above described point total. The car is not disposed of when it gets older and is often driven way past the 150,000 mile mark.
John Q
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 2:33 a.m.
I'll make sure to call you every time there's a need for the police to respond.
Bertha Venation
Wed, Feb 23, 2011 : 9:55 p.m.
This is the BOMB! Let me know if you need a driver so you can ride shotgun!! YEE HA!
WalkingJoe
Thu, Feb 24, 2011 : 2:33 a.m.
To quote a great thinker "What?"
Ryan J. Stanton
Wed, Feb 23, 2011 : 9:48 p.m.
@grye — The city reviewed the bids of the Cooperative Purchasing Programs of the state of Michigan, Oakland County, and Macomb County. Signature Ford Owosso was the lowest responsive bidder under the Macomb County bid.
grye
Wed, Feb 23, 2011 : 9:32 p.m.
Not available from a local in-town dealer for the same cost? What up?