When City Council defunded two deputies from the sheriff’s budget two years ago, they also lost access to the deputies’ vehicles. Now that the positions have been restored, West Hollywood needs to buy two new vehicles.
City Manager David Wilson revealed the news during his presentation to the Public Safety Commission on Monday regarding the sheriff’s new contract with the city.
“When a city adds a new resource that requires a vehicle, such as a deputy, the city incurs a significant cost in the first-year expense for the additional vehicle required for the new deputy,” Wilson said. “The maintenance and replacement costs of the vehicles are already integrated into the annual charge, and if the city keeps the deputy, the service agreement allows the city to regain access to the vehicle procured by the new deputy service unit when the unit is deleted and restored within 24 months, extending that period from previously 12 months.”
The new contract allows the city a greater window of time should they decide to cut deputies again.
“This would have benefited the city of West Hollywood directly when we reduced our number of deputies and then restored them in less than a 24-month period,” Wilson noted. “Instead, we had to purchase new vehicles when those deputies were restored.”
The MSRP of a 2024 Ford Police Interceptor is $47,165.
In defense of John Erickson, Sepi Shyne and Lindsay Horvath, when they voted to de-fund the Sheriff’s department and cut deputies, they had no intention of reversing that decision and hiring deputies back. They did not think that they would have to replace two vehicles if the restored deputies to West Hollywood because they never intended to re-hire deputies. Only due to huge public pressure were some of the deputies restored to our station. But the cost of the vehicles was nothing compared to the price the residents have paid for having neighborhoods that are not as safe as in… Read more »
You can be sure there are lots of additional costs for equipment, customization, administrative costs etc., might end up being $100,000 per car. The “Weho” logo alone probably costs the taxpayers a few thoisand dollars, knowing how reckless the current 3 clowns on the council are. It seems odd we gave back the last two cars, probably got zero trade in, and now we must buy two new ones. I hope Lindsey has a great birthday fundraiser on County property. Thanks for appointimg her, Abbe Land.
Quite honestly, provide scooters outfitted with sirens for newly added deputies on ‘foot patrol’ in & around WEHO – They can be engaging with the public @ the same time & use all of the new bike lanes & new ones forthcoming. With existing traffic & more traffic to come, it seems like a logical move.
We should stop referring to Block by Block as “security ambassadors.” They are “community ambassadors” who can help alert law enforcement, make contact with the unhoused, and refer them to specialized services. I came to this realization after seeing the Block by Block station at the Veterans Memorial, which has been very effective. Block by Block can never and should never be a replacement for law enforcement.
Absolutely correct, talk about the mis-messaging the public & providing a false sense of safety, DUMB, particularly in such a ‘label sensitive’ city..
Block By Block is a pathetic and costly dumbed down version of a hall monitor. The city needs to rid itself of these degenerate cash cows. They see something and turn and walk the other way. We could added three or four deputies for the cast of twenty lazy-ass Block By Block Ambassadors.
so, if I understand this correctly, Sepi Shyne and John Erickson cost the city thousands of dollars unnecessarily because of their ignorance. It figures!
Just send the bill to Soon Shiong’s dad and Lindsey Horvarth. These two goons cost us a fortune.
You certainly don’t want to leave-out that wonderful addition of Sepi Shyne!
Thousands?? Don’t kid yourself. More like hundreds of thousands or, all things considered, millions. This current CC is a poor excuse for community leadership
Yep. Of course if the research and impact report was written correctly abd or even read, the council would know these things. Selective information is our city’s specialty.
Way to go city council! What a bunch of idiots. Thanks for needlessly spending more of our tax dollars!
Where did the other Ford Police interceptors go though? Did they evaporate into thin air? That was only a couple years ago.
That is a fair question. But given the size of the fleet of vehicles, the vehicles we didn’t need after we cut the deputies probably went to replace some of the older vehicles that needed to be replaced. Once the former WeHO vehicles were assigned to another jurisdiction, we couldn’t get them back. “De-funding” the Sheriff has been a gift that just keeps on giving.
They went another station. LCSD retires up 20% of their fleet every year.
The cars went back to the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department. They really belong to them. Read the contract.
If they belong to “them”, why do wehoans have to pay for new ones?
Because we contracted for additional deputies (to replace the ones previously nixed) and those deputies need vehicles because the Sheriff does not keep an inventory on hand. Even though we get a relative good deal contracting from the Sheriff rather than having our own police force, there is no free lunch.