County buys police car; will re-bid SUV

The Jay County Commissioners and county sheriff wrestled with quotes for a new sheriff department sport utility vehicle this morning due to some uncertainty about what constitutes a “police package.”
After lengthy consideration, the commissioners decided to purchase one car and solicit new quotes for an SUV with the hope of getting quotes that can be more easily compared to one another.
The commissioners reviewed quotes for two new sheriff’s department vehicles — a car and an SUV — at last week’s meeting and asked Jay County sheriff Ray Newton to review the quotes.
Newton said this morning there were no issues with the pricing for the cars, but that there was some discrepancy with quotes for the SUV.
The bid specifications Newton sent out when soliciting the quotes asked for a “police package” SUV.
Unlike cars, however, manufacturers don’t have a standard for SUVs to be used by law enforcement.
“Everyone tells you there is not a police package for an SUV,” Newton said.
That specification caused some discrepancy in the bids, Newton said.
Although Fincannon Ford, Hartford City, submitted the lowest bid for an SUV at $20,945.30 for a Ford Explorer, Newton said he received a call from Moser Motors, Portland, stating that while its bid for a Ford Expedition was higher at $25,477.96, that bid was for a heavy duty vehicle that the dealership deemed was the closest it could get to a police package.
Newton said that Moser Motors said if the county would consider a small Ford Explorer for that vehicle, that the dealership would also like a chance to quote that model.
The sheriff’s department currently has a 2009 Ford Explorer that Newton said has worked well for the department since it was purchased.
Moser Motors submitted the apparent low bid for the police car, at $19,133.48 for a Ford Crown Victoria cruiser.
Later in the morning, Rick Sizelove from Fincannon came to speak with the commissioners about the Explorer his dealership bid.
“There’s a lot of gray area in SUVs and police packages,” he said, nothing that currently no SUV on the market is approved for law enforcement as a pursuit vehicle.
Sizelove said the Explorer, while smaller than the Expedition, should be able to perform all of the necessary duties and will have better fuel economy.
“You’re going to get 20-something miles per gallon with an Explorer and about 10 to 12 with an Expedition,” he said.
Sizelove said that manufacturers are developing a police package SUV that will be pursuit-capable, but that those models won’t be available until fall. He also was unsure how those vehicles would price.
Newton’s personal recommendation was to purchase the Explorer from Fincannon.
“My personal opinion, I’m happy with the Explorer,” he said.
The commissioners took time to discuss their options in order to avoid controversy with the decision.
Commissioner Faron Parr said this was the first time that he could recall in which the lowest bids for the individual vehicles came from different dealerships.
“I think this is the first one I recall where one was cheaper on one and another was cheaper on the other,” he said.
Commissioner Jim Zimmerman expressed his opinion that the board should decide what would be best from the county and then purchase both vehicles from a single dealership instead of splitting them up.
The commissioners also discussed other possibilities such as purchasing two cars now and waiting until next year to buy an SUV or buy the car now and wait until the fall for when a police package SUV is on the market and quote those again.
After the discussion ended this morning, the commissioners decided that they would purchase the Ford Crown Victoria from Moser Motors now and then have Newton re-quote the SUV.
Parr said Newton will alter the specifications for the SUV in hopes of getting quotes that would lead to a “more apples to apples” comparison.
Parr also said that if this second round of SUV quotes doesn’t allow easy comparison, the county will likely wait until the fall in order to look at a police package SUV.
In other business this morning, the commissioners:
•Were informed by Newton that a jail inspector from the state walked through the county jail on Friday and gave the county a favorable review.
Newton said there are still a few small issues with the jail that he will address with the expansion/renovation project manager Jeff Badders.[[In-content Ad]]