INDIANAPOLIS — The proposed purchase of 28 new vehicles caused a divide in a City-County Council committee meeting Tuesday evening.
The Indianapolis Department of Business and Neighborhood Services requested about $2.2 million Tuesday for three projects:
- Demolition of Oak Tree Apartments site ($1,284,500)
- Grant to Indianapolis Animal Care Services ($120,000)
- Purchase of 28 new vehicles to replace aged, high-mileage ones ($822,000)
The money needed for the three projects wasn’t in the initial budget when it was drafted and passed by the City-County Council in 2018. Councilors didn’t have a problem with the first two. It was the third that created an argument.
Minority Leader Michael McQuillen, R-District 4, said the city shouldn’t be spending money on things that weren’t in the budget. He called it a “million-dollar” surprise to councilors. He said if BNS needed 28 new vehicles, why wasn’t it in the budget to begin with?
The answer he received was that they didn’t think they would be needed until now.
“I think that’s an inappropriate way to budget, and I’m not happy,” McQuillen said.
BNS Director Brian Madison said it’s important for his staff to have vehicles, and many of the current ones need expensive repairs.
BNS wants to buy 22 Ford Fusion Hybrid SEs at $25,500 each and six Ford F-250 trucks at $28,500 each. The additional $71,000 is to purchase equipment for the vehicles.
The Fusions would be used by inspectors and the Emergency Response Leadership Team. The trucks would be used by the Weights and Measures inspectors. Madison said the goal is to replace the department’s aged and high-mileage vehicles.
Another reason for buying the new cars was that BNS has an extra $900,000 more than what was initially budgeted for 2018. BNS budgeted for $20.4 million, but actually made $21.3 million. BNS, unlike other city agencies, gets its self-funded budget through fees and permits.
“You are turning that revenue around to make an investment in the long-term health and stability of the agency and your ability to serve the public,” Councilor Blake Johnson, D-District 12, said Tuesday night. “This seems like perfectly good financial stewardship to me.”
But McQuillen doesn’t think the extra money is a good enough reason to buy the new vehicles.
“In my mind, extra money that is not spent should be returned to the taxpayers or kept in a rainy-day fund,” McQuillen said. “Spending another $820,000 on new, shiny cars does not make sense to me at this time.”
McQuillen said this is the third time this year the council has received a request for an appropriation they weren’t expecting. All 25 City-County Councilors, Democrats and Republicans, voted to support Mayor Joe Hogsett’s budget, but there was a caveat, McQuillen said.
“We wanted to make sure there were no surprises,” McQuillen said. “Now we’ve had two or three surprises unfold and we’re just not excited about seeing more surprises down the road. … I fully understand there are emergencies sometimes, but new, shiny cars for business services is not an emergency.”
The demolition of Oak Tree Apartments was seen by all councilors as a good, necessary thing for the city. The grant to IACS won’t have a financial impact on the city, but it just had to go through the financial process. But Republicans on the council couldn’t support the new vehicles and voted against the entire measure.
All Democrats voted for it, and it passed, 4-3. It will head to the full council with a “Do Pass” recommendation.
