By Hallie Lauer
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PITTSBURGH — With decades-old vehicles languishing away at the city’s repair shop and others limping along on service calls, Pittsburgh City Council wants to know the extent of the problems with the fleet and how much it will cost to upgrade the vehicles.
For years, public safety and other city officials have lamented the status of ambulances, fire trucks, police cruisers and garbage trucks. Ambulances have broken down on their way to emergency calls, police cruisers are well beyond their lifetime, and the older the vehicles get the harder it becomes to repair them.
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Despite the influx of money the city received as part of the federal COVID-19 pandemic relief, not enough money has been funneled into the vehicles. If the city started ordering new vehicles today, it would be years before they were on the road.
In an effort to get a better picture of how bad the problem is, Councilman Bobby Wilson introduced legislation Tuesday morning that would require the Equipment Leasing Authority to submit a fleet efficiency report each year by Sept. 1 .
Inside the report, the authority will have to include each vehicle, the year, make and model and its mileage, as well as total annual maintenance and repair costs per vehicle.
It also asks the authority to note any vehicles that have exceeded a maintenance cost threshold of 30% the purchase price of the vehicle.
The authority also is tasked with providing cost projections for the next three years and an analysis of areas that have too many or too few vehicles.
“We need to understand what is really going on with the city’s fleet,” Mr. Wilson said in a statement. “Ambulances are breaking down, fire trucks need constant repairs, and the Department of Public Works is recycling functional parts from old vehicles to retrofit ones in current use. Residents, as well as Council, deserve to know how many vehicles are in disrepair and how much it will cost to fix or buy new ones.”
Previously, city officials have estimated that it would cost the city about $22 million annually to upgrade and maintain the entire fleet.
The 2025 budget allocates just $6 million to purchase new vehicles, and five-year projections show that number decreasing over time.
“We’ve neglected the fleet for far, far too long,” Councilman Anthony Coghill said during a meeting regarding the status of the fleet in May. Mr. Coghill also sits on the Equipment Leasing Authority, which is responsible for purchasing the city’s vehicles.
Mr. Coghill has pushed in the past for reallocation of the federal COVID-19 funds to buy more vehicles, some of which the city has purchased but has not yet received.
With the expiration of those funds, increased debt service payments and shrinking property tax revenues, the city is facing lean financial years ahead, with little wiggle room to further invest in the fleet.
The status of the fleet became a flashpoint during the spring Democratic mayoral primary race between Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor.
Mr. Gainey noted that the disinvestment in the fleet is something that happened over years, dating back to when the city was under state financial oversight. Mr. O’Connor, who won the race, made it a campaign point that if elected in the fall, he will make reinvestment into the fleet a priority.
“Maintaining the quality of our vehicles is critical to public health and safety, and the state of our fleet right now constitutes a serious problem, as the City faces financial challenges in the years ahead,” City Controller Rachael Heisler said in a statement.
Council could vote on the new reporting requirements as early as next week, but any delays will push the legislation until late August, when council returns from its summer recess.
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