Dinuba City Council Approves 27 New Vehicles, Including 15 Patrol Units

The Dinuba City Council voted 4-0 on March 10 to approve the purchases; Councilmember Linda Launer was absent. The decision greenlights one of the city's most significant fleet overhauls in recent memory, retiring aging police cruisers and deteriorating public works trucks across multiple departments.

Using two different cooperative purchasing agreements and a variety of funding sources, the city 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.

In total, the vehicle purchases will cost the city nearly $1.9 million. 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.

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.

Administrative Services Director Karina Solis framed the vote as the culmination of a long-deferred priority. "This process has been several years in the making; we've been working on this for quite some time," she 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 pandemic-related supply chain disruptions, Solis said the city put off major vehicle purchases during the budget uncertainty that surrounded its disagreement with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration over online sales tax revenue. Now that the matter has been resolved, Dinuba is more comfortable spending money it previously was not sure would be available.

The patrol vehicles being replaced are all high-mileage vehicles that have reached the end of their useful life, with the oldest dating to 2012 and the newest to 2017. For the parks and public works vehicles, some of the trucks being replaced date back to 2000, 2003 and 2005.

The choice of vehicle model for patrol was deliberate. Dinuba chose to purchase the Ford Explorers 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 noted is on the pricier side.

The patrol vehicles are being acquired through a TIPS Purchasing Cooperative contract, and the parks and public works vehicles through a Sourcewell contract. Both cooperative purchasing agreements save the city time and money, as city staff do not have to conduct the formal bidding process themselves and the city is assured it is getting the best price available.

The purchase also marks the launch of a longer-term financial strategy. Solis described the approval as "setting off a fleet replacement program," adding that the city will set aside money each year for the life of each vehicle so that future replacements will already be funded when the need arises. 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.