The decision on whether to lease vehicles or purchase them outright for the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department is still up-in-the-air. On Monday the county commissioners heard from Derek Willard of Enterprise Fleet Management. He had been requested to be at the meeting by Commissioner Mike Delp to help explain the option of leasing vehicles versus purchasing them.
During the February 25th meeting, Enterprise presented a 3 year lease agreement of $117,760.32 for four Dodge Durango’s and a 4 year lease of $31,180.80 for a Ford F150.
Willard said that at the end of the 3 year lease the county could purchase the Durango’s for $4,500, extend the lease for an additional 12 months or replace the vehicle with a new leased vehicle. Willard said, “The idea is that you get to a point where you know what your budget is for vehicles and you keep a fresh fleet a vehicle running on the road at all times.” By applying the gains from sale, you keep your budget flat lined.”
If the county wanted to do another lease the equity from the buyout to the actual sale price would come back to the county and be applied to their next lease agreement. Willard said while the county could purchase the Durango’s for $4,500 at the end of the lease, he would sell them at a price between $7,000 to $8,000. The difference would come back to the county and be applied to the next lease. He said, “By applying the gains from sale, you keep your budget flat lined.”
The Sheriff has the money in this year’s budget to purchase the vehicles outright so the thought was to pay the lease up ahead.
Joe Martin from County Auto told the commissioners he can also lease vehicles to municipalities but when the sheriff approached him he only discussed an out-right purchase.
Commissioner Stan Klotz said purchasing the 4 Durangos from County Auto is just over $31,000 each for a total price of $124,656 before trade in and leasing them from Enterprise is $34,350 including the service charge and lease charge for a total of $137,400. He said “If we don’t get $7,500 on that vehicle at the end of the 3 year lease when they sell them we lose money.”
The commissioners decided to wait and let Sheriff Matt Hassle make a recommendation on which way he wants to acquire vehicles for the department.
