With no discussion or debate Tuesday, the Miami-Dade Commission approved the spending of more than $41 million for a new fleet of vehicles this year. Only Commissioners Micky Steinberg and Rene Garcia voted against it.
The rest of the commission voted to approve the purchase of 580 vehicles.
Miami-Dade County considers a vehicle ready for replacement it’s either 10 years old or has over 100,000 miles on it. Departments are supposed to look for replacements that could be “reallocated” from within the county’s inventory first.
“Repair history, age and mileage are also reviewed to ensure that replacement is more economical than repairing and maintaining a vehicle that is past its life cycle. Maintaining vehicles over 10+ years and/or over 100,000 miles can generate average annual maintenance costs in excess of $3,000 for light vehicles and $17,700 for heavy vehicles when compared to newer vehicles which are under manufacturer’s warranty for major repairs.”
Okay. But that means that if all 580 cars being replaced need maintenance at the heavy vehicle cost, it would still only be $10.2 million, instead of $41 million.
And this is important because in 2008, the county was found to have something like 1,200 brand new cars parked in a garage somewhere. In 2012, WPLG Local 10 reported that more than 100 county vehicles that had been paid for by taxpayers, for almost $1 million, were sitting idle for years at the Earlington Heights Metrorail station.
And every year, the county purchases cars. Are we just stockpiling for the apocalypse? Are the discarded vehicles sold at auction? Where does that money go?
Read related: Miami-Dade Commission considers land buy near airport for $17 million
“The vehicles requested will be used to support various essential operations that service the Miami-Dade County community, to include water distribution and processing, police operations support and training, materials management, building and facility maintenance, community outreach programs, zoning enforcement and other related operational support activities that provide countywide services. The requested allocation will be used by departments as follows:
- The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department gets $15,326,000 for 27 vehicles for water recovery, processing, and distribution activities.
- Miami-Dade Police Department (still?) gets $7,426,326 to buy 171 vehicles to support police operations and events, forensic investigations, waterway security, driver training, and transport of equipment, supplies and evidence.
- Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces gets $4,891,490.75 for 79 vehicles to support recreational activities and maintenance of various county owned parks and facilities utilized by the public.
- The Department of Transportation and Public Works gets $3,833,000 to purchase 42 vehicles to support transit and public works operations, and maintenance activities.
- Miami-Dade Aviation gets $2,739,900 to buy 35 vehicles for operations at Miami International Airport and other county airport. These, however, are not general fund dollars but proprietary funds generated by airport operations.
- Community Action and Human Services gets $1,635,000 to buy 14 vehicles to support community outreach programs, provision of social services, and operational support activities.
- The Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources will get $1,522,993 for 38 vehicles to support building and zoning enforcement, and “operational support activities,” whatever that is.
The balance of the remaining requested allocation of $3,634,737.20 will be utilized by 12 other county departments to acquire 74 vehicles necessary to maintain their operations in areas such as materials management, building and facility maintenance, vehicle maintenance, information technology support, and election support.
Elections gets three new vehicles: A Junfhenrich reach truck (photo on left) for $70,000 (a quick google search found them for much less), a hybrid sedan for $80,000 — one has to wonder if this is the new Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia’s car — and a golf cart for $25,000. Internal Services gets two forklifts and a Ford transit van for a total of $210,000.
Other details from the list: Fire Rescue gets 10 vehicles for $415,000 (these are also proprietary funds), Information Technology gets 7 for $407,000, the medical examiner gets two for $190,000 while the public defender’s office gets only one for $52,000.
You can see the full list here.
One of the most expensive vehicles is a mobile radio/tech comms programming vehicle, which sounds like a high-tech surveillance van, ala FBI, for $910,000. MDPD, which Ladra thought ceased to exist, also gets 19 sedans for a total of $860,700 ($45,300 a pop). Those sedans are electric vehicles as part of the instructions in 2021 for departments to get 10 percent of their light to be battery electric vehicles and to increase that by another 10 percent each year.
The ultimate goal is to have the county’s entire light fleet go to battery vehicles by 2030.
In 2023, the county’s Internal Services Department’s Fleet Management Division ranked 4th in the National Association of Fleet Administrator 16th Annual Green Fleet Awards, which honor 50 peak-performing fleets, public and commercial, for outstanding sustainability efforts and enhanced environmental practices. That same year, the county ranked 11th in NAFA’s “100 Best Fleets in the Americas.”
Miami-Dade Commission approves $41 million in cars, trucks, heavy equipment added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
