Police Department to Replace 8 Aging Patrol Cars

City police soon will be getting eight new cars to replace aging vehicles.

The City Council this week unanimously approved a $171,934 contract to buy the new police cars from an agency in Alhambra. The council also authorized a separate expenditure of $24,000 to equip the new cars.

The cars being replaced have at least 75,000 miles on them and some have 110,000 miles, Police Chief Daryl Wicker said.

Wicker urged the council to approve a “piggyback contract” in which Cypress would purchase its eight vehicles through a contract involving the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. A city staff report said that such a piggyback arrangement allows Cypress to benefit from “the high-quantity discount” offered to Los Angeles County.

Councilman Tom Carroll, who initially questioned why Cypress did not seek its own bids for the cars, said the arrangement was not really a sole-source arrangement. “We’ve let the County of Los Angeles already bid for us,” he said.

City Finance Director Richard Storey responded, “Yes, that’s kind of the bottom line.”

Councilwoman Gail H. Kerry cautioned that Cypress should not continually rely on Los Angeles County assurances of the lowest cost possible. “Maybe we are not always getting the lowest [cost],” she said.

She said Cypress should periodically make its own cost checks to determine that piggyback contracts are the bargains they are claimed to be.