The Sheriff’s Office is short one vehicle after it was totaled in an accident.
Sheriff Mike Borkovich totaled a patrol car in June after making a U-turn to join a pursuit, prompting a request for a new vehicle as the department struggles to manage its current fleet.
“I was driving down the road and saw a car passing three cars at a time,” Borkovich said. “I turned around and clipped another car. It doesn’t take much to total a car with 100,000 miles on it.”
The department was supposed to have a replacement delivered last week as part of a new lease with Enterprise Fleet Management, but the rollout has caused some growing pains.
Enterprise, the company supplying the department’s patrol cars, doesn’t give a firm timeline on deliveries.
“It’s 3-to-6 weeks to change over cars,” Undersheriff Jim Kiessel told commissioners last week.
Under the new fleet lease program, the department would get five additional vehicles. A fully equipped patrol unit now runs about $70,000, up from an earlier estimate of $60,000.
Until the new vehicle arrives, the department will be short a car through at least October. The replacement will be used for administrative duties.
Commissioner Gwenne Allgaier pushed back, pointing to vehicles already sitting in the lot that the county owns outright rather than leases.
District 2 commissioner Will Bunek and the rest of the board countered that while they’d cover the purchase, operational calls like this one are the sheriff’s to make.
In other business last week, board members discussed a significant increase in the cost of food service for jail inmates.
TIGGS, the company that provides meals to inmates at the Leelanau County Jail, is asking for a raise of more than 30%.
Lt. Duane Wright on behalf of the Sheriff’s office countered with 15%, but vendor turned it down.
One thing is clear: feeding inmates is still cheaper than running Meals on Wheels.
The board pushed the decision to August, hoping to negotiate TIGGS request down from 30%.
TIGGS recently signed a oneyear contract extension with Grand Traverse Academy that included a mid-year raise of just 3.5%. The disparity between the two contracts has board members questioning why Leelanau pays what Kiessel and Wright called a “luxury tax” on inmate meals.
“Their jail is larger and pumps out more meals,” Wright said.
Grand Traverse’s jail goes through at least 100 meals a day on the low end, according to Wright.
