DINUBA – Dinuba is revving up its fleet performance as it replaces more than two dozen vehicles utilized by the police, parks and public works departments.
Using two different cooperative purchasing agreements and a variety of funding sources, the city of Dinuba plans to buy 27 new vehicles, including 15 fully-equipped Ford Explorer patrol units for the Dinuba Police Department and 12 Chevrolet Silverado trucks for parks and public works staff. The Dinuba City Council voted 4-0 on March 10 to approve the purchases; Councilmember Linda Launer was absent.
“This process has been several years in the making; we’ve been working on this for quite some time,” Administrative Services Director Karina Solis said. “After Covid, there were so many things that were put on hold. … Now is the time where this has come to fruition, and we feel that it’s the appropriate time to make these purchases.”
In addition to supply chain issues that stemmed from the COVID-19 pandemic, Solis said the city put off any major vehicle purchases during the budget uncertainty that surrounded the disagreement with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration over the online sales tax revenue the city receives.
Now that that has been cleared up, Dinuba is more comfortable spending money it previously was not sure would be available.
In total, the vehicle purchases will cost the city nearly $1.9 million. With current interest rates, Solis said purchasing all 27 vehicles outright rather than financing the fleets will save Dinuba more than $200,000 in the long run.
Solis said the $1.26 million for the 15 patrol vehicles will come from reserves in the fund for Measure F, which is the city’s special public safety sales tax. The fund currently has a balance of around $3.3 million, “so we would still have a healthy reserve after the fact,” Solis said.
Funding for the 12 trucks, which will cost approximately $630,000, will come from the general fund as well as the transportation, fleet maintenance, property and facility maintenance, water and sewer funds.
The patrol vehicles being replaced are all high-mileage vehicles that have reached the end of their useful life, Solis said. Of the ones being replaced, the oldest patrol vehicle is from 2012 and the newest is from 2017. For the parks and public works vehicles, some of the trucks being replaced date back to 2000, 2003 and 2005, Solis said.
Dinuba chose to purchase the Ford Explorers for the patrol vehicles because the department has had many problems with its current Dodge Durangos, Police Chief Abel Irriarte said.
“They have to be very heavily modified as well to be pursuit-rated, … and these are probably the best pursuit-rated out of the three vehicles that are available to law enforcement right now,” Irriarte said.
Also available to law enforcement is the Chevrolet Tahoe, which Solis said is on the pricier side.
Moving forward, Solis said city staff plan to set aside money each year for the life of each vehicle in the fleets so that when the vehicles need replaced, Dinuba will have the funds ready.
“This essentially is also setting off a fleet replacement program,” Solis said. “This will be a program that we’ll be running through in years to come, and so the initial one would be to purchase outright with reserves, but in the future we will already have set that money aside specifically for this.”
Dinuba is using cooperative purchasing agreements for both fleets, meaning the city can acquire the vehicles by “piggybacking” on contracts that were already competitively bid. This saves the city time and money, as it means city staff do not have to go through the formal bidding process themselves and ensures the city is getting the best price available.
The patrol vehicles are being acquired through a TIPS Purchasing Cooperative contract and the parks/public works vehicles are being acquired through a Sourcewell contract.
Councilmember Kuldip Thusu commended city staff for their work on the matter, noting that the city was “prudent for a long time to set aside the money.”
“The fact that you are keeping depreciation in mind and keeping funds to replace them in due course is a very smart thing to do as well,” Thusu said. “It’s a very well thought out plan.”
