Oct. 13—Is it better for the county government to keep leasing its vehicles or to claim some as its own? That was the question faced by magistrates in what turned out to be a contested vote with Pulaski Judge-Executive Steve Kelley breaking the tie.

As part of Tuesday's meeting of the Pulaski County Fiscal Court, Bill Jones of Don Franklin Somerset stopped by to discuss the county's lease agreement on vehicles used for a variety of purposes, including with the detention center, coroner's office, recycling, and road maintenance.

Jones noted that a total of 26 units are currently being leased to the county. Nine vehicles were set to see their agreements end this month, and a 10th would be up in November.

"At this point, we are willing to give you guys an addendum on the lease," said Jones. "It's Don Franklin's lease company. ... You're paying a 1.5 percent interest rate. ... With the addendum, what we'd be willing to do is extend it out for 12 months from each individual contract and and have an individual addendum signed out, so you can continue the lease program until we can supply you with vehicles to replenish the fleet."

He added, "We do a closed-in lease, so at the end of the lease, you've got the option to buy those out. In this case, you can look at it (as) 'This unit here is well back of wholesale money, so it would be a good purchase to extend it out.' Or one that's not, so if these numbers all change and the market goes crazy in 12 months, we'll have to reevaluate these and see how far back they are from the current market value, so it would give an option at the end of the addendum."

The crux of the issue was this: Whether to purchase outright 10 vehicles the county had been leasing to this point, or to extend the lease agreement for another year. The adamant champion of the first option was Fourth District Magistrate Mark Ranshaw.

"Based on what you're saying how we're in good shape if we buy these leases out, and the fact that we ... have the money to buy them out, and not have to continue paying interest on them and all that, and once the new administration comes in, if (future judge-executive Marshall Todd) wants to look at the lease program and all that, I think he'll get with you on all that," said Ranshaw, "but in my opinion, I think honestly we ought to go ahead and buy these out.

"In the future, we may re-look at the lease program, but for these vehicles, I believe the county should buy them out," he added.

Ranshaw said his "biggest concern" is with mileage and wear-and-tear, with some of the vehicles up over 50,000 miles. Jones noted that employees drove vehicles home more during the COVID period so the miles went up, and while there's a 25 cent charge on miles, Don Franklin hasn't charged for any of the overages because of the unforeseen circumstances. Jones also said that if the county opts to extend the lease, Don Franklin will continue to provide oil changes and tire rotations.

Kelley voiced his own support for the leasing program, saying that in the years before Ranshaw was on the fiscal court, the county owned their vehicles and the fleet suffered as the vehicles got older and the county had to pay more and more in maintenance costs.

"We had a dilapidated fleet," said Kelley. "We had not enough vehicles to do our job well. We were paying at that time well over $200,000 a year in maintenance, and half the time they were in our shop and half were on the road. It was a bad position to be in, especially when we got that first snow and we didn't have any equipment to fight snow with.

"I think the lease program has probably been the best program we've done for safety for our employees, keeping them in new, dependable vehicles, for morale of the employees," he continued. "... It's allowed us to consolidate our maintenance department into one area and not have to have full-time maintenance at our county garage. So there's pros and cons."

Ranshaw reiterated that he would consider leasing in the future, but thought the county was in a "great position value-wise" on the 10 vehicles in question.

Deputy Judge-Executive Dan Price said the idea of buying the vehicles "sounds really good" but the vehicles are being purchased as their warranties are running out. He recalled trucks that had transmissions and engines go out as a big snow came in, and even though they had low mileage, the maintenance proved to be extremely costly.

"No one really understands the value of what our employees do, and how little bit of money they get paid," said Price. "You give your employees that have got a mediocre wage, but you give them good tools to work with, they'll beat the door down to try to help you all. That's where we're missing the buck."

Treasurer Joan Isaacs observed, "Maintenance is going to hit (fleet maintenance supervisor) Frank (Hansford) and Frank's people. Is he going to be able (to take care of it) or are we going to have to hire somebody else to keep up with that?" She also observed that $340,000 going out in a lump sum to pay for the vehicles could take away the county's financial cushion.

Fifth District Magistrate Mike Strunk was also in favor of continuing the lease; after First District Magistrate Jason Turpen observed that the county wouldn't be planning on keeping the vehicles for a long time, Strunk said, "If we're going to keep them for a year and then trade them in, we might as well just extend the lease for another year and then trade them in."

Responded Ranshaw, "If we pay them now, first of all, we'll have value at the end for some. Because if we turn them in, we lose all that extra value, right?"

Isaacs said the value would just go down; Jones said that with the closed-in lease, if the county had "$350,000 just lying (around), it might be a good opportunity to buy them. ... At the end of the lease, whatever the market value is, we get the vehicle back at the end of the lease. You have the option to buy it. If you're in the situation of being above the market and you've got the extra money, but at the same time you're losing the benefits of extending that in, (you're) taking the risk, taking the reward of what the vehicle's going to be worth at the end of the lease."

Third District Magistrate Jimmy Wheeldon was out with health issues, so only four of the five magistrates were present. Ranshaw and Turpen both voted yes on the former's motion to buy the vehicles; Strunk and Second District Magistrate Mike Wilson voted against it.

So it came to Kelley to break the tie, and he chose to vote against the motion. In response, Strunk made a motion to go ahead and extend the lease on the vehicles another year. Ranshaw said he'd like to see the contract, but the court went ahead and voted to approve the extension anyway, with Ranshaw as the only "no."

This wasn't the only controversy of the meeting. Beverly Haynes, interim director of the Pulaski 911 Center, asked the court to approve promotions for Danielle Flynn and Andrea Scales to supervisor assistant TAC positions.

Earlier in the year, Kelley requested naming Haynes and Scales to shift supervisors and assistant TAC (terminal agency coordinator, the latter a role required for every agency that accesses FBI Criminal Justice Information Services systems) at the Pulaski County 911 Center. The two roles tend to go hand-in-hand at the local 911 hub, as there hasn't been a specific assistant TAC position held there.

Ranshaw stated then that he'd fielded complaint calls from others that weren't considered for the positions, and asked that Kelley go back and offer the position to everyone again and address it again in two weeks, while Turpen made a motion to accept the jobs as presented in the minutes — as assistant TAC, without changing it to reflect the supervisor position.

That's indeed what the court voted to do, which necessitated a change to the administrative code, creating the assistant TAC position. Later, Haynes was chosen as interim director of the Pulaski County 911 Center.

On Tuesday, after Haynes' request, Ranshaw said he wanted to table the issue and "look into it."

He added, "It is a supervisorial position. It's the first I've heard about it. I don't know what everybody else has thought, but I think we need to look into that a little bit deeper. It's a little bit different than an employee position."

Haynes responded that interviews have been completed, and said she's spoken with everyone that had interest in the job, and everyone was given the opportunity. "It was done according to our policy," she said.

"You interviewed everybody that was interested in the position?" asked Ranshaw. "How long has each person been in 911?"

A chuckle was heard, and Ranshaw turned to Price and said, "Don't laugh, I'm asking questions." Following which, another chuckle could be heard.

Haynes responded that Flynn has been at the 911 center for over 16 years, and Scales for more than five, and has experience as a supervisor. "I trained Danielle; 23 years in my profession," she said.

"And there's nobody that wanted that position with more experience than someone that's been there five years?" asked Ranshaw.

"There's been people that applied for it that had more years in, but they are not qualified for the position that I'm seeking them to fill," responded Haynes, adding, "When the position became available back in July, and the whole debacle (happened), I was chosen and that was all taken away. Then the judge went on and did the interviews. It was open to every person that was at 911, regardless of how long they'd been there. They could express and could get the interview. The interview process has been done."

Ranshaw clarified with Kelley that he was in on the interview process and was okay with the choices being presented; Kelley responded, "I trust my supervisors. They're the ones that are there day in and day out. If they come to me and they think this is the best choice, I back them up completely on that."

The court then unanimously approved the promotions.

In other fiscal court business:

—Joel Wilson was reappointed to the Western Pulaski Water District.

—The court voted to stay with Humana for the county's insurance, with Bill Neikirk as the agent, with a three percent rate increase.

—The court approved Hansford's requests to upgrade old storm sirens to more advanced two-way systems, and replace two other sirens.