(Columbus) The Columbus City Council discussed a possible vehicle leasing program at a recent committee meeting. The city has been in discussions with Enterprise Rent-A-Car and to see if this would make sense for Columbus financially long-term. City Administrator Matt Amundson says the municipality currently buys vehicles through borrowing.
“This would change that to an annual lease payment which would be currently required of our operating budget,” says Amundson. “So, as they’ve [Enterprise] structured this, this would be a $210,000 annual payment from our operating budget to every five years [to] replace these 18 vehicles.”
Amundson says Enterprise has given the city the option to lease all 18 vehicles in 2025 or start with eight in 2025 and systematically replace the rest. Alderwoman Trina Reid wanted to know how Enterprise’s contracts work on the vehicles the city has spent money on retrofitting.
“I have no idea for all the little details that could wind up being extra expenses if we have to do things again and again when the vehicle might still be quite useful.”
City Administrator Matt Amundson says the biggest challenge of implementing this program is competition.
“If there’s a commitment, we’re gonna put X amount of dollars into vehicle equipment replacement every year then we can fund a program like this,” the city administrator says. “But when we get up against, you know, the road project this year, it went from 1.5 [million dollars to 2.3 [million dollars] and now we don’t feel like comfortably borrowing enough money to invest in our vehicles, and now we take a step back.”
Amundson says that if the city chooses to move forward and implement the program, it is less of a chunk each year.
After some further discussion, it was decided that the matter would be discussed further at a future meeting.
