City council puts the brakes on leasing an entirely new fleet

According to Sullivan, this is a more efficient program for the city. “We have underfunded our fleet maintenance program for so long and we have extremely old vehicles. The process (has been) that we hold onto those vehicles for so long to where we don’t even get a value for them at the end. This is an opportunity to buy into more of a system where we will update our fleet,” he said. He noted that leasing the vehicles and circulating them every five years also comes with good programs provided by Enterprise to keep track of mileage and other valuable data. Sullivan went on to say that the city has a lot of three-ton, diesel, oversized vehicles that are now inefficient and this program would change those out for newer, better vehicles.

Councilmember Arcenia Pacheco questioned the need for the library to have a new vehicle. Sullivan explained that library staff attend trainings, travel to the district library and run errands around town, and they currently utilize an older model vehicle. Pacheco reiterated, “Say it’s an old vehicle, is that something that needs to be replaced if they’re only going a mile from the library to (city offices) or if they go to the post office, and then have an administrative vehicle for trainings that is a pool vehicle,” she said, wanting to know if one new vehicle could serve multiple departments as needed rather than one for each department.

Sullivan explained that the original thought was to phase out vehicles over time but when looking at them saw that they had vehicles from the 1990s. “This would be a program that we would be able to replace all those vehicles immediately and have nice running vehicles.”

Councilmember Robert Black expressed similar concerns. He also had concerns regarding potential increased insurance costs. “Right now, our insurance has got to be low because we have older vehicles.” Sullivan explained that a blanket policy would cover all vehicles so the rates would not increase. This is due to the city having a government insurance policy, which is unlike a civilian policy.

Black stated, “There’s too much here. There’s a lot and reading this contract, in five years we’re going to be paying out close to $1.5 million. We have a town of 4,700 people and 50 employees and I’m sitting here totally lost on this. We need to do a lot more work because I’m seeing four vehicles for parks. Eight three-quarter ton vehicles, which I thought we were getting rid of because they were so expensive but now there’s eight of them listed down here.” He then stated he would like to table the item until it could be gone through more thoroughly.

Vice Mayor Mike Nilsson had similar concerns regarding vehicle models, wondering if less expensive models could be leased rather than larger vehicles. Councilmember Church felt the city should forgo the contract and instead purchase five-year-old vehicles that would cost less and require minimal maintenance.

Mayor Kathleen Smith had questions regarding the funds budgeted for each department for equipment and maintenance. She then added that she was also in favor of tabling the item until the figures could be gone through more thoroughly.

Sullivan reiterated that newer vehicles will be less costly on fuel, be more efficient and have lower maintenance cost, and admitted that it is difficult to talk about comparisons when actual costs are not a certainty.

Charles Soffner from Enterprise spoke, stating that this would not be a typical lease, as it has no mileage or wear and tear as a component of the lease. “If four years into it, it’s determined that the city doesn’t want one of the vehicles, it would be sold for its current value. The intent of the lease is to get rid of the vehicles while they still have some value, compared to what the city is currently doing.” He also disagreed with the concept of purchasing a five-year-old vehicle for better value because the contract is for a government vehicle, which comes with special pricing that is better for government versus the public. It was explained that purchasing a vehicle and running it for 15 years removes all value and that once you get to a certain point it doesn’t make sense.

Mayor Smith reiterated that the concern is the accountability to the citizens. “I know that each of us up here, once we approve any kind of expenditure with a value of $1.5 (million) in the end, we’re going to have citizens stopping us and saying, ‘how can you justify getting brand-new vehicles for every single employee when our streets look the way they do.’ We’ve got to be able to justify that.”

The council voted to table the item until a budget update can be provided at the next meeting to determine the affordability of entering into a lease contract.

The council also discussed the consolidated fee schedule. The agenda item was to approve the intent to increase fees but because there was no consensus on what those increases should be, no specifics were approved. The fees under consideration include those at the cemetery, pool, library, utilities and bulk water. As noted in an earlier meeting, the fees will have to increase in order to cover the cost of providing those services. The council had met in a work session prior to the meeting to further vet out the proposed increases. The city must publish a fee schedule that the council recommends in the newspaper and then hold a public meeting before those changes can be considered for final approval by the council. Following the discussion, the council tabled the item.

In other business, Vice Mayor Nilsson was re-appointed by council vote to continue as a representative to the Northern Arizona Council of Governments, with Mayor Smith as an alternate.

The council also held a first reading to amend an ordinance of the Holbrook City Code, Chapter 5, Article 5-2, Uniform Codes and adopting the 2018 International Building, Fire, Fuel Gas, Mechanical, Plumbing Residential Codes and the 2017 National Electrical Code. This amendment is to address conflicting ordinances, providing for severability and establishing an effective date of. This is to provide clarity on code for residents and future development. Code Enforcement Officer Barbara Blythe addressed the council regarding the issue, stating that when the codes were adopted last year it was not realized that all the appendices had to be individually adopted as well.

The council also discussed the timeline for the 2025-26 budget process. Administration is meeting with each of the department heads with direction from the council to determine priorities. The council will review the budget and present priorities at the next council meeting.

During the meeting, Police Chief Nathan Christensen introduced new recruits for the Holbrook Police Department. The recruits include Joseph Boshert, Nicholas Clayton and Sierra Williams. Williams graduated from the Flagstaff academy and prior to that worked at the Navajo County Jail. Boshert graduated from the Northern Arizona Law Enforcement Training Academy (NALETA) in Taylor and also came to the police department from the Navajo County Jail. Clayton also graduated from NALETA and came to the police department from the Navajo County Probation Office. Even with these three officers the department is still short three officers.

For the general plan update, Mayor Smith noted that each council member, along with their citizen committee of three to five people, had been assigned two different elements from general plan for review and there are 16 elements that need to be addressed. Mayor Smith reported that she actually took on four elements with her committee of citizen volunteers. Her elements include circulation, environmental, economic development and land use. She noted that circulation and environmental are nearly complete.

Vice Mayor Nilsson reported that his committee is continuing their discussions and expect to be ready to present at the end of the month regarding historic, and public facilities and charities.

Councilwoman Karina Pack was present telephonically and reported that her elements included trails and land preservation.

Councilmember Robert Black stated that the elements for his committee included water and they are complete with their assignment. “We have completely rewritten the water. We went through it extensively and changed it to what we felt the needs are now so we feel that the paper we put together will work for whatever we have going forward,” stated Black. The other element he was assigned was impact fees and after discussion with City Manager Sharon Jakubowski Wolz, he felt that the fees was really not something that needs to be addressed at this time.

Councilmember Tamara Church was assigned safety as a new councilmember, and it was noted by Church that she is still learning what needs to be done on that issue. Councilwoman Arcenia Pacheco has undertaken community design and housing, and those assignments are nearly complete. Councilwoman Teri Tafoya, who was excused from the meeting, is over the cost of development and growth areas.

Mayor Smith is hoping to have the council discuss their findings on Feb. 26, during a work session prior to the regular meeting.

During a summary of current events, Mayor Smith praised the Holbrook Public Library for being named the Business of the Year by the Holbrook Chamber of Commerce. Councilmember Black noted that the Navajo County Sheriff’s Posse Pony Express will be hosting the trek to Scottsdale on Jan. 29. With community events being hosted during the week prior to the ride taking place, including a breakfast at the Holbrook Senior Citizens Center in the morning, a parade, swearing in by the Navajo County Sheriff and a send-off dinner all planned for the Tuesday prior to the ride on Wednesday.