Council to Consider Bonds for Police Cars

The Township Council is considering a bond ordinance to fund the purchase of 12 new police vehicles.

The 12 vehicles sought by the township for use by the police department are 10 "pursuit-rated," four-wheel-drive Ford sedans and two sport-utility vehicles, according to Business Administrator Tom Cardis.

The ordinance, which could be approved as soon as Monday night, would allow the township to appropriate $545,500 and issue $518,225 in bonds or bond anticipation notes, which would require a $27,275 down payment.

A public hearing will be held before Council votes on the measure.

Township officials considered two financing options to add new vehicles to the police department's fleet—leasing the cars for three to four years or purchasing them through bonds.

"The interest on a lease payment is actually higher than the interest rate we would pay in bonding," Cardis said during Council's Oct. 12 meeting

Several residents spoke out against the use of bonds to pay for the vehicles during the mid-October meeting, during which the ordinance was approved on first reading by a 6-0 vote (Councilwoman Crystal Evans was absent).

Council President Glen Bianchini and Vice President Orlando Mercado pointed to the bonding process as the method used to buy police vehicles since the 1990s.

"There's times when you can pay for it out of your pocket and there's times when you have to (finance) it," Bianchini said. "I support that. In my opinion, this is an acceptable way of doing it."

McLaughlin, a former Republican township councilwoman, was one of several people to question the continued use of bonding.

"I understand that's how we did it 10 years ago, but 10 years ago our economy was in a totally different position than it is now," she said.

McLaughlin asked if Cardis could prepare a cost breakdown for Monday's meeting to show how officials determined to bond rather than lease the new police vehicles. The business administrator indicated he would, but noted that he would "have to assume an interest rate" for the bonds.

The township currently holds about $50 million in outstanding bond debt.

When asked by Gloucester City resident John Schmidt, who regularly attends Township Council meetings, how necessary on a scale of one to 10 he felt the new vehicles are for the police department, Police Chief W. Harry Earle responded, "Oh, I think, to be honest with you, a 10."

"I would like to see more than 12," the police chief added, noting that his department now has 110 full-time officers and 25 part-time officers using its vehicles. "But we have to keep to our budget."

Earle noted township employees will outfit the vehicles with police equipment—the cost of which is included in the bond ordinance—such as light bars.

Cardis added the older police vehicles that would be replaced should Council approve the bond ordinance will continue to be used by township employees, including police detectives and members of the construction and tax assessor's offices and Department of Public Works.