The CEA (Central Equipment Agency) Review Committee met 07/11/2022. It was a fairly short and straightforward meeting in which all of the items were approved.
They started out with the request to use replacement reserve funds from van 1002 to outfit van 1001 and keep van 1001 in the replacement fleet.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked how long this repurposed van would meet the needs for the vehicle.
A Police Department representative answered that it could probably provide another 10 years based upon what the forensic evidence specialists needed. It would be a period of time before they would be looking as replacing that vehicle again.
Another staff member added that the CEA staff was supportive of this proposal as well. It seemed like a really good use of the equipment and the money. Without doing this he didn’t know how the police would fill this need, so it made good sense. It was in the best interest of both the Police Department and the Central Equipment Agency.
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) asked if putting this vehicle in the replacement fleet would change the amount that they would have to pull in the future to replace the vehicle. How were they planning for what would eventually replace this van?
A staff member responded that putting it into the replacement fleet was the accounting mechanism. It would never get replaced with a brand-new vehicle and was always going to be essentially a spare vehicle. It would be around as long as it lasted and when it came time to replace it, they would either look to find another spare vehicle to use or perhaps the Police Department would come forward with a capital request to fund a brand-new vehicle.
The replacement fleet included a lot of seasonal vehicles. This van was similar to those in concept but outfitted a lot differently than the city’s typical seasonal cars/vans. Additionally, the Police Department would be paying in to the CEA 20% of what the full replacement rate for the vehicle would be, so they would be helping with ongoing maintenance to hold onto that vehicle longer.
The request was approved 4-0.
They moved on to the request for joint purchase and ownership of a new Mobile Command Center with Outagamie County.
A man (he sounded like he could have been Chief Thomas, but I’m not sure) explained that the Police Department started discussing this in early 2020 when they started planning ahead for the 2023 replacement of their Command Post/Mobile Command Center. Given the cost for these types of specialized vehicles and the functions they needed this vehicle to perform (being a command post for critical incidents, emergency management, and special events), they realized that the funding they had set aside was not going to be enough.
Outagamie County had need for a similar vehicle, so the Appleton Police Department and Outagamie County started to discuss how they could jointly purchase a vehicle that would meeting both of their needs. They did some research and discovered that many of the city’s needs were also shared by the county and by pooling their resources, they could purchase a 15-20-year vehicle that would accomplish what they both needed. They felt this was the right way to go about this.
The committee had no questions and approved the request 4-0.
The committee moved on to the request to downgrade 8 unmarked police cars and upgrade 3 intensive use squad cars. Neither the Police Department nor CEA staff members had anything to add to the memo that had been submitted to the committee.
Alderperson Doran commented that he appreciated the work they had done on these various items and the way the Police Department had tried to be creative with the resources they had. He especially appreciated how they had worked with Outagamie County.
The committee approved the item 4-0.
They moved on to the final agenda item which was the request to add the replacement for mower 5530 into the CEA fleet. This was the replacement for the mower that was damaged in the hit and run incident last month.
A staff member told the committee that mower 5530 had been purchased back in 2017 for $8,500. That did not meet the threshold to be added to the CEA fleet; however, the replacement mower was over $11,000 which was enough to put it into the CEA fleet. This would allow them to collect replacement reserve funds for six years and then at the end of the mower life, they would have money to buy a new one.
The committee had no questions and approved the request 4-0.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=986938&GUID=8C53E5CC-5691-46AA-853F-80040BA3FB85&
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