[0:00] Roll call. Uh, invitation will be given by councelor Thomas and pledge of

[0:05] allegiance by councelor Bradis.

[0:09] » Stephen Ford >> here.

[0:10] » Brad Willis >> here.

[0:11] » Leslie Evans >> here. Crystal Lacy

[0:13] » here. Roger >> here.

[0:15] » Scott Thomas >> here.

[0:17] » Here >> everybody's here.

[0:22] Father, [snorts]

[0:32] we pray Lord that you just give us wisdom and guidance as we liberation

[0:37] tonight as we head home. Pray for those who

[0:40] name. Amen. Amen

[0:45] to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it

[0:50] stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

[0:56] for all.

[1:03] » Special order of business. Uh recommendation was brought by the budget

[1:06] committee for the police fleet uh because of availability of vehicles.

[1:12] That's why we're having [snorts] this special meeting.

[1:15] We have prepared uh two resolutions just in case actually one resolution for the

[1:20] purchase of the vehicles and then I think that we have uh one of our uh

[1:24] council members that'll that'll maybe make a suggestion on that. So anyway, um

[1:31] obviously I I'll I'll turn it over to Josh uh and Chief Herring in the fact

[1:35] that uh we have have been fighting this uphill battle with vehicles over there

[1:41] at the PD and um uh [snorts] we had began to entertain enterprise rental

[1:48] fleet um to to come in and and take care of all

[1:54] of our vehicle needs over there. We've got some of our vehicles over there in

[1:57] the in the police on the police department side of things that are 19

[1:59] years of age that we're we're still driving every day. And uh you know,

[2:04] obviously that went arry with with Enterprise

[2:09] uh still very disappointed in that was it was a very good program I think but

[2:14] then they then they quit uh doing it for police vehicles. U so anyway uh [snorts]

[2:22] Chief Herring picked up the ball uh vised with me a couple times. We've been

[2:26] up to Jofflin [snorts] to look at edu, I think is the company's name. Uh, and

[2:31] I'll turn it over to him and let him discuss to tell tell everybody what we

[2:34] found out. So, so, thank you guys all for coming in. I

[2:39] know I'm not the only one on the agenda, but I do appreciate you guys coming in

[2:44] and taking the time to listen to me. Um, so obviously I've been working at the

[2:49] police department for about 20 years. And 20 years ago, we had five officers

[2:54] and five vehicles. [snorts] At that time, replacing my oldest unit each year

[2:59] kept our fleet current. But now with 13 officers, 13 units, and one reserve unit

[3:04] and growing, still only adding just the one vehicle every year hasn't kept pace.

[3:10] Uh we currently have vehicles ranging from 5 to 19 years old as the mayor just

[3:15] said um responding to calls to service. So coming to your house, we have a

[3:19] 19year-old car, maybe a 16 year old car. Um we've had several issues with the

[3:25] 16-year-old cars obviously um transmission wise. Um but just obviously

[3:31] the older those cars get, the more problematic they are for us at the at

[3:35] the police department. And that's not good when you're trying to answer a

[3:38] domestic call and your car breaks down and you know you have to find some other

[3:43] way to get to it or find somebody to come pick you up and take take you. So

[3:47] that's not always the fun fun part of it. Um as as we all know vehicles are

[3:52] not cheap and their maintenance isn't is just as expensive. Um in the last few

[3:56] years I've just been paying attention to a lot of our vehicles that are are in or

[4:01] past the seven and eight year mark which have been more problematic for us. um

[4:05] everything from water pumps in the Ford Explorers costing upwards of $5,000 to

[4:10] replace to the Dodge Durango and the Chargers um having coolant issues and

[4:15] currently cost us two motors in in one Durango and one Dodge uh Charger. Um

[4:22] the that brings me to another issue. As we continued to just get one vehicle a

[4:26] year on state bid, those vehicles change. From when I started, we were

[4:31] doing Crown Vicks, then it changed one year to to Chevy and Palace, then

[4:35] Chargers, then Durangos, Ford Explorers, and then to Chevy Titles, which means

[4:40] that's an wide array of of models in one fleet. and uh makes it almost impossible

[4:47] to predict a budget on upcoming general maintenance. The tires uh oil changes

[4:52] cost much less predicting something major when it breaks down um with all

[4:57] the different year models and the mates and of those vehicles in one fleet.

[5:02] » [clears throat] >> Uh what I propose to the budget

[5:05] committee with the help of ESU pursuits and government capital who the city is

[5:11] currently working with now um we have an opportunity to standardize my fleet

[5:16] across the patrol division with six Taho fully updated and one admin truck fully

[5:23] updated um to replace all of our oldest vehicles

[5:28] except for two. One is an 8-year-old vehicle and one is a six-y old vehicle.

[5:32] The 8-year-old vehicle has 50,000 miles on it, so it's pretty squared away. Um,

[5:36] and it happens to be our animal control truck that we have. And then the

[5:40] six-year-old vehicle, um, we had no no issues out of, and as of today, we've

[5:45] had no issues. Um, so the reason why I picked the Chevy Tahoe, uh, obviously

[5:51] they are a little more expensive. You're going to you're going to pay for what

[5:54] you get. And uh we currently have two newer Taho in our fleet that you guys

[5:59] graciously let me uh purchase a couple years back. And uh getting that the same

[6:05] vehicles across the patrol division to be able to um keep up with the

[6:11] maintenance, keep up with all of that uh better. And then also like there's a lot

[6:16] of safety issues when it comes to law enforcement. You get in, you get an

[6:21] officer that's driving say a Chevy Imp, and then something happens and he has to

[6:25] jump in a Dodge Durango. Well, it's not easy for him to just jump in that car.

[6:30] Sometimes the shifter is a spin shifter, sometimes it's a column shifter,

[6:34] sometimes it's on the floor. So, there's just things that will slow an officer

[6:39] down trying to respond to those cars. But if they're the same standardized

[6:43] across the patrol division, it'll make it a lot easier for us to get in those

[6:46] cars, know where everything is, and respond to those calls in a timely

[6:50] manner. Um, the uh Chevy Tahoe has generally holds

[6:56] it a better resale value compared to something like the Ford Expedition

[7:00] largely due to its strong demand and reliability. Uh, both vehicles are

[7:04] durable, but the Tahoe has a reputation for longevity. And the Tahoe typically

[7:10] edges out the competition and resale uh value due to its uh cons constant

[7:17] demand. People just want they like the Taho. They're durable. Families use

[7:22] them. They're work vehicles. Uh the feds right now, they are using them and they

[7:28] are buying them up. And that is part of the reason why we're here tonight trying

[7:32] to get this on in front of you guys is because that is happening across the the

[7:38] United States. Um the space is another thing with those

[7:42] Taho. You know, we put all these cages in our in our vehicles. You got a

[7:47] Durango that is very small, very tight. You got a Charger is really really small

[7:52] and really really tight. with the Tahoe, the space allows enough space um for law

[7:59] enforcement, for the prisoner transport cages, um just everything that's

[8:03] necessary for the officer to do the job. So, the Tahoe is is the pick for that.

[8:08] Um going back to maintenance, um I've talked to Jason Yates probably a half a

[8:13] dozen times and uh just the major uh work and repair that he does for most of

[8:18] our vehicles. Um, I'm pretty sure he could tell you that Taho is probably his

[8:23] number one pick when it comes to to vehicles that he would work on and

[8:29] getting parts availability um, and just the reliability of it. Um, he's been

[8:34] doing this type of work for a long time, so I respect anything that he tells me.

[8:38] I'm not I'm not a mechanic, so I can't tell you that that man back there could

[8:42] tell you anything I need to know about about a vehicle. Um, but and also it

[8:47] holds its warranty just or holds a warranty just like any vehicle that you

[8:50] would buy off of a lot. Um, it's a limited warranty uh that includes

[8:54] bumper-to-bumper coverage, three years or 36,000 mi. And then the powertrain

[8:58] warranty is 5 years and 60,000 mi, whichever one comes first. So, going

[9:03] back to the ESU Pursuits, using them to build these units, um, the equipment

[9:08] that they put in these units, they will actually warranty that that equipment.

[9:13] So when you're talking about the cages, the sirens, the lights, the gun locks,

[9:17] all of that is covered by three years of warranty. And then the main brain that

[9:22] runs the lights is a 5year warranty. So these [clears throat] guys are sharp

[9:28] when it comes to this stuff after we spoke to them and they uh they have it

[9:33] down to where they know that if they put that in that car that they're going to

[9:38] warranty it theirelves and they will send a tech to us in Huntsville. we

[9:43] would not have to go to Joplin. They would send them to us and they would fix

[9:46] a light or a gun lock or whatever it was that was wrong with it for the three

[9:50] years or five years on the plane. Um

[9:56] [clears throat] so I obviously choosing the ESU to build

[9:59] these um they have several locations all over the the US. Um they have years of

[10:04] experience after talking to them. Most of them are law enforcement, fire,

[10:08] emergency personnel. Um they do do fire, they do EMS, they do anything that has

[10:14] to do with uh emergency response vehicles. Um they're the ones that's

[10:20] doing the installs on these vehicles. So they have a good idea of what a law

[10:23] enforcement off or law enforcement vehicle needs, a fire fire department

[10:27] vehicle, what they need in that vehicle. Um ESU also does tradeins. So, if we buy

[10:34] vehicles from them and they put this equipment in the vehicle, whenever we're

[10:39] ready to get rid of that vehicle, we can go back to them and say, "We want to

[10:43] trade this in." And if it's seven vehicles, six vehicles, whatever it is,

[10:48] or just three of those, we can take those, trade them into them. They will

[10:52] give us top dollar because they are the ones that put the equipment in there.

[10:55] They know how good that vehicle was done. And of course, if you're buying a

[10:59] vehicle that's got the resale value, then they're more likely to give you top

[11:02] dollar on the trade and then you just go right back into what you're what you

[11:07] started with in the the first place. Um, the mayor the mayor and I took a trip

[11:12] down there. He told you guys that and we spoke to them for several hours. Um,

[11:17] they gave us advice, they gave us options, they answered all the questions

[11:21] crazy from both of us and absolutely had no pressure techniques. The guy that

[11:26] talked to us was a salesman at all. He was actually still a law enforcement

[11:31] officer that worked in Joplin and uh so he had good good advice on stuff that

[11:37] they run into all the time over there in Joplin. Um

[11:42] so I went and I just so after all that I went on in 2024 and 2025 and I pulled

[11:48] our vehicle maintenance and our equipment mostly the upfitting side of

[11:52] the equipment and in 2024 we spent 29 $325.37

[11:59] out of a $30,000 budget in maintenance just in repairs.

[12:04] In 25, we spent $18,978 in just in repairs out of a $29,000

[12:09] budget. In the equipment budget, it consistently around 60,000, but just

[12:15] particularly in upfitting, it ranges from 7,000 to 10,000 depending on what

[12:19] you're putting in the car. And then obviously if it's a K9 unit, it goes up

[12:24] from there. >> And and I'll add this SU group since

[12:27] it's kind of cradle to grave uh what they do for these vehicles. Uh since

[12:32] they have the the uh in stock

[12:38] build out for one of these cars like the cages and K9 units and all that. Since

[12:43] they have all that in stock, it actually saved us on the front end of this

[12:47] probably about $40,000 from what we've done in the past. buy one vehicle and

[12:51] then take it to somebody to customize it for for a police unit, right? And and if

[12:56] they're doing all six or seven of these vehicles all at one time, it saves us

[13:01] about $40,000 historically from what we've spent in the past to do those

[13:05] vehicles. So, that's a good point to add to what they do.

[13:09] » Yeah. Because if we continue just for say the next six years buying one

[13:12] vehicle every year, that's $60,000 if you if you're going by the $10,000 mark

[13:17] to to upfit that vehicle every year. So, we're roughly paying 60,000. So, yes,

[13:22] the 40,000 would be >> y

[13:24] » be very accurate. Um, on the [snorts] 2024 and the 2025, again, if we just

[13:29] followed that trend like I just said and we ran that out for six years, um, you

[13:34] would see it's a $565,000 um, if of 2024, if we just continue to

[13:40] do the same thing, spending the vehicle fund every year, upfitting it every

[13:45] year, and then the maintenance. Obviously, with newer vehicles, we're

[13:49] I'm hoping with newer vehicles that are my maintenance budget will actually be

[13:54] better off because I'm not having to take every vehicle that's 13 years old,

[13:59] 16 years old, 19 years old, and trying to keep it on the road when I've got all

[14:03] these new the newer vehicles to to not put so much maintenance into. Um, and

[14:09] then again with 2025's uh trend, if it stayed, it would be around 503,000.

[14:16] um if we did it for six years, just continued on the same route. Um as far

[14:20] as financing, um ESU uses Capital [snorts] Fleet Solutions and we got a

[14:26] quote from them for a six-year lease on seven units upfitted and it was $537,000

[14:33] and at 6.9% interest. And me and the mayor

[14:38] kind of chuckled when when we saw the saw that because we knew that the

[14:43] interest rate was not that. And uh he actually came up with the idea of

[14:48] looking at the government capital which the fire department and the city is

[14:52] working with and uh I sent it over to DC over there and uh he came back with his

[14:59] at 4.89% 89% interest, same vehicles, same price for [snorts] the six years.

[15:06] The difference in the ESU, the capital fleet, and uh going with DC at the

[15:11] government capital is the first one was a lease. It was a true lease. So we we

[15:16] would not technically own those vehicles or the equipment in there until it was

[15:20] done at the end of its lease. With the DCs, if we go with the government

[15:24] capital, we own them as soon as soon as the checks wrote and they're delivered

[15:28] to us. >> And we're not hamstring by what offer a

[15:31] lot of times certain mileage, certain hours on vehicles. And now they're

[15:35] geared more for police and fire rescue type vehicles, but at the same time, as

[15:40] everybody in here knows, uh, a lot of times, uh, you know, we c we get the we

[15:45] get the calls and complaints sometimes that people don't realize that these

[15:48] guys have have performed maybe an investigative duty. They're sitting in

[15:53] their car. they're they have to have that car on with the computer running so

[15:56] they can go to ACIC so they can do everything that they need to do from

[16:00] their car. Uh those vehicles are constantly running so we're not

[16:04] hamstring by that as far as the leasing goes.

[16:06] » Right. So the the or government capital when

[16:12] they sent that back at the 4.89% 9%. The the yearly payment was 106,31447

[16:20] compared to the 6% interest at 110,000 a year. And and those payments obviously

[16:27] they don't start until the a year after the financing, which obviously helps my

[16:31] budget tremendously in the year 2026 by not having to to make a payment until

[16:36] 2027. Um and so what I proposed to the budget committee uh using the government

[16:42] capital due to its lower interest rates and uh using my vehicle fund which was

[16:49] it's 55,000 is typically what we get in our budget for a new vehicle every year

[16:55] and then taking 20,000 from my equipment which makes a $75,000 down payment

[17:02] towards the 537,000 which would bring it down to 462. 2 at

[17:09] 4.98% interest for the six years and it brings it under 100,000 around 91,

[17:15] uh, 590 is what it brings it down to, which is definitely more manageable for

[17:20] me even out of my current budget now if I was to pull that out there. Um, I'm

[17:25] not going to lie to you. I don't think I mean probably the first two or three

[17:29] years I would be okay as far as maintenance and and the equipment, I'd

[17:33] be fine. But um [snorts] it's it's it would get it would get hard come you

[17:38] know the fifth year, sixth year, seventh year trying to make it to where we're

[17:42] actually [clears throat] profiting off of the cars because we

[17:45] have newer cars with less miles and things like that. But uh I definitely

[17:49] think that that it's doable the 91,000 to uh to pay out of my budget if I had

[17:56] to. >> I think uh on on this year's budget,

[17:58] just so you know, you can see down here what Chief Herring prepared the 55,000.

[18:04] That's a line item that he's got in his budget right now. Uh and he's got an

[18:08] additional 60,000 I think under equipment. Uh he's proposing taking

[18:14] 55,000 using 20,000 out of the equipment budget and then 10,000 out of

[18:18] maintenance, which would be $85,000 a year that we're already currently paying

[18:22] out uh for the use of the vehicle. So, we're getting really close with that

[18:27] $75,000 uh dollar down payment. We're getting really close to only being we're

[18:32] within uh $6,59010 of what our today's budget is. So 26

[18:40] budget. Every year we end up putting a little bit more into these budgets.

[18:44] Obviously, you know, we've done it for the fire department. This gets us a

[18:48] start in the right direction of of maintaining a one type of vehicle in the

[18:53] fleet. Mr. Yates is here. He can he can vouch. He and I have had private

[18:57] conversations about this and and uh you know I mean Jason gets to work on a

[19:03] little bit of everything out there at his shop, but he said the Taho seem to

[19:06] have worked out all the bugs in 23 I think 23 and 24 and these 25 and 26

[19:13] vehicles are are the uh cream of the crop so to speak. again that fiveyear

[19:18] 60,000 milei warranty uh we get to that that's almost the life of this thing uh

[19:24] and what what Chief Herring's proposed I think is absolutely a doable thing. I

[19:29] think the budget committee agrees with that in the aspect of u of of what we're

[19:34] currently financing and how we increase that every year. I think this will pay

[19:38] for itself. Now does that mean that it's going to get us out of the hole that

[19:42] we're in now? Yes. in the fact that we've got 19 year old vehicles that

[19:46] we're replacing. Is it going to are we going to have another jump off

[19:52] point at some point in time? Probably six, seven, eight years down the road,

[19:57] yes, we may have to look at replacing more and keeping some of these as part

[20:00] of our fleet. But what it does is it gets us out of that routine of buying

[20:04] one vehicle a year. uh and it doesn't really affect the bottom line, so to

[20:09] speak, in the fact that it's $6,590 more what we're proposing now than what

[20:14] we were already going to spend this year. So, uh I think it's a no-brainer.

[20:19] I absolutely support the idea. Chief, I want to tell you, you done a fantastic

[20:23] job of preparing this and thanks for not dropping the ball. I know I get busy a

[20:27] lot of times and and you stayed lazy being focused on this and I think it's

[20:32] high time we do something about it. So for that, I I greatly appreciate all the

[20:36] work that you put into this. And now we'll open it up for questions to our

[20:40] council members.

[20:46] Anybody have any questions for Chief?

[20:51] » Yes. [laughter] >> Did you get better the second time?

[20:54] » Yeah. >> They always say that the first version

[20:59] is always second. So, some people had a first version tonight. I had a first.

[21:05] » You did good both times. >> You did both.

[21:07] » Yeah. I think you done a fantastic job as well. Um, the only other thing that

[21:12] I'll add to this and our our and I got to think about this today. Uh, Jessica's

[21:17] not here. I think since it's a financial u perform that we're looking at like

[21:22] like financing money, I'm not sure if it has to go out uh like

[21:30] you know in a formal bid pack since since we've been keeping everybody

[21:33] astute of everything that's going on here with the council and all that. I

[21:38] don't know that it has to, but that's the only that's the only caveat that I

[21:43] thought of that would hinder us from buying these tomorrow.

[21:47] » I thought government capital might be there are certain

[21:53] there are certain ones you can do business with and that's already been

[21:57] taken care of. And I kind of thought they were

[22:00] I uh >> I know that they are used around the

[22:03] state. That's how we got in touch with them in the first place.

[22:04] » So if that's the case, you may not we may not have a a cool off or waiting

[22:08] period for that. But but we will find that out. That's that's the legality of

[22:12] it. But what we need tonight is decide if we want to enter into this agreement

[22:17] with government capital. Uh and if so, uh we need to take a vote on that. Well,

[22:25] I'll make the motion that we proceed using government council for the

[22:30] purchase of the six Taho and the one truck and

[22:37] » approve resolution. The the only thing that I would like to

[22:41] see done instead of u depleting his budget in 2026

[22:48] since we're just in February that the 75,000 down payment be made out in

[22:52] general so we don't

[22:58] » yeah so we so since you all since you all made this suggestion in our in our

[23:05] budget committee meeting we went ahead and prepared another resolution just

[23:09] that >> um we'll have I think we'll have to vote

[23:11] on those two separate things but um so table hold that thought. So we have a

[23:18] motion on the on the table right now uh to go ahead and proceed with government

[23:23] capital uh corporation for the financing of the $462,573

[23:29] at 4.89% 89% of annual payments beginning April or May of 2027

[23:36] uh for $91,59010 that'll come directly from the budget of

[23:41] the police department. >> Is it 4.89 or 4.98?

[23:47] » It's 4.89. This is the original sheet. >> Okay.

[23:52] » That's just a typo. It's 4.89%. >> Yeah. Uh so we have a motion for that.

[24:01] Do we have a second? >> Make a second.

[24:04] » Second from Guy. Uh, do we need a roll call since it's

[24:09] half a million dollars? >> Call. [laughter]

[24:13] » Yes. >> Yes.

[24:15] » Leslie Evans. >> Yes. Chris Lacy.

[24:18] » Yes. >> Roger O.

[24:19] » Yes. >> Thomas.

[24:20] » Yes. >> Yes.

[24:23] » Yes. >> Mr. May I make a move motion that we

[24:27] approve resolution 6-2026. >> I'll second that.

[24:31] » Have a motion. Have a second. All those in favor say I.

[24:34] » Uh that is a resolution regarding a lease purchase agreement for the

[24:38] purposes of procuring police units and upfitting. And I won't you all have been

[24:44] that was included in your packet. So you all had a chance to look at that. That

[24:48] resolution passes. Okay. Next. >> Well Leslie opened the door. You told

[24:53] her to wait. Yes. So Leslie, you want to make a motion for resolution number

[24:58] 7-2026? >> Yes. I make a motion that we approve

[25:02] resolution 7-206. >> I second.

[25:05] » Have a second by Miss Lacy. All those in favor say I.

[25:10] » All oppose, same sign. And just to go on the record, u this is a resolution

[25:14] amending the adopted 2026 budget for the city of Huntsville. and and I'll I'll

[25:20] cut down here. [snorts] Basically, what we are doing to be very clear,

[25:25] we have the $75,000 in the police department's budget. We're leaving that

[25:30] in there. Uh we have about 980 some odd,000 in unallocated funds that that

[25:36] has not been budgeted. We will we will draw from unallocated funds for the $75

[25:42] or $75,000. So, it does not affect uh Chief

[25:46] Herring's budget this year at all. And the city will cover a $75,000 down

[25:51] payment is what that resolution is about.

[25:54] » That also leaves us in good shape for your first payment.

[25:59] » And and whenever we talked about this, but just so everybody's clear how we

[26:03] budget on these things, we start in about September, October, uh we'll add.

[26:08] So, so we'll just have to remind ourselves that'll be a carryover. So,

[26:12] you'll have better almost I would say depending on how we budget you'd

[26:17] [snorts] have almost two years worth of payments already at your disposal

[26:20] whenever you got ready to do it >> right

[26:22] » at any point in time DC Greer with government capital said that we could

[26:26] always go in if we pay a big chunk down we can go in if interest rates are are

[26:31] lower we'll find out in March if they're going to go down again uh March or April

[26:35] uh hopefully they will if President Trump gets his way uh I'm hoping he does

[26:41] uh and they do go down um If that happens, we can always put a big

[26:46] down payment toward this and refinance uh right after our first payment.

[26:51] [clears throat] So, >> there should be some dollars from the

[26:54] resale. >> Yes. Yes.

[26:56] » Yes. And I we've got some ideas about that and Chief Herring and I will be

[27:01] working on those things. So, >> how much does it cost us to get signage?

[27:07] [cough and clears throat] >> So, obviously you guys have seen the

[27:10] newer Taho that we have. I don't want to say it's plain, but it's a very basic.

[27:15] It's a state police, state highway police setup, [snorts] and that is very

[27:21] inexpensive. It's roughly $300 just for the stickers. I put them on. So, I'm not

[27:26] paying for somebody to put them on because they are so easy.

[27:28] » And Josh has at his disposal act money. >> Yes. The 988 pack.

[27:33] » The 988. >> It has to go towards vehicles. It can't

[27:35] go towards anything else. So, either equipment or just the vehicle itself.

[27:40] And now that we're doing the step program, we may have potentially some

[27:44] money's coming to us. >> I've heard that the step program has

[27:46] actually bought like bought outright departments cars. So

[27:51] » part of the reason why we're >> do we have a motion for adjournment so

[27:56] we can let the planning committee Oh, and and to the planning commission,

[28:00] thank you all so much for waiting patiently. Uh thank you very much for

[28:04] that. Appreciate it, >> sir. Yes, sir. Make the motion.

[28:07] » Tim Ford, let's go. Let's go home. Let's planning commit me.

Special City Council Meeting 02-23-2026 Huntsville, Ar

Transcript