Monterey set to purchase two additional vehicles for the police department.
Monterey Police Department Public Information Officer David Corley said the two vehicles are 2019 Ford Explorers that will be added to the current fleet as patrol vehicles. Corley said the department’s current fleet of vehicles is aging out.
“Several of them have over 100,000 miles on them, and they are becoming issues as far as maintenance,” Corley said. “Just having to make repairs constantly on them.”
Mayor Alex Garcia said though the vehicles are used, they both have less than 45,000 miles on them. Garcia said the town is getting both vehicles for an estimated $33,000.
The aldermen discussed how the town would pay for the vehicles. Police Chief John Mackie said he believed he could use funds from other budget line items to help lessen the blow.
“The line items that I’ve got here would be $19,000, which would cover one of the vehicles and the equipment to go with that, if the board would be willing to do that as well to try not to deplete the military fund, because that’s kind of a safe haven for the police department in case something comes up that we need,” Mackie said.
Mackie said the line items in question are data-processing services and repair maintenance. Mackie said the department has no plans to do anything to the building and then save money on data-processing when the town switched software.
Mackie said the remaining funds would be used from the department’s rainy day fund. Alderman Jamie Phillips suggested purchasing the vehicles only using the police department’s rainy day fund.
“We got overages in places that could cause us some shortfalls, that right now, if we can take it from the military fund, then that is where we need to take it from,” Phillips said. “We have got several line items that are over budget that we are gonna have to address, and one of them is in the police department.”
Alderman Cecelia Paulsen said she agrees with Mackie that the line items should be adjusted to help reduce the amount coming from the rainy day fund. The motion was amended to take an estimated $19,000 from the two budget line items to help cover the cost. The aldermen then approved the purchase.