ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The City of Liberal’s partnership with Enterprise Fleet Management continues to be strong, according to a presentation made at the most recent Liberal City Commission meeting Tuesday evening.

Enterprise representative Justin Harper was on hand to give an update on the partnership.

“As you all know, the City of Liberal and Enterprise Fleet Management have been partners since April 2024, and there was a process we all went through leading up to that,” Harper said. “When this partnership started, we discovered 56 percent of the vehicles in the light and medium duty fleet was 10 years old or older, and 75 percent of the vehicles in that same fleet were six years old or older. When we came together, the average age of the fleet was 14.4 years old, which is really old, but that’s kind of common for a city prior to partnering with us. With the average rate of acquisitions on that fleet, it would have taken around 15 years to get through a full cycle and replace all the vehicles in the fleet. There were also some safety concerns – there were 32 vehicles that predated anti-lock standardization (before 2007), and 43 vehicles that predated Electronic Stability Control standardization (before 2012). It was also discovered there were 63 vehicles that predated backup camera standardization (before 2018). What we’re working toward is shortening the current vehicle life from 15 years to three years, provide a lower and more sustainable fleet cost that is thus more predictable year after year. That in turn should help significantly reduce the costs of maintenance and repairs and reduce overall fuel spending through more fuel-efficient vehicles.”

Harper then talked about the current status of the fleet.

“Currently, there are 124 vehicles in the fleet for a total value of $2,742,462 from five different manufacturers,” Harper said. “We’ve already brought in multiple vehicles the past couple years that have helped lower the age of the fleet – currently, the average age of the fleet is 6.3 years old compared to the 14.4 years old it was when this partnership started. We’re now averaging about 14.5 vehicles per year, and the average odometer distribution now is about 33,000 miles, so we’re operating a newer fleet with lower odometers that are also ultimately safer for everyone.”

With all of that in mind, Harper said there is much to look forward to with the future.

“If we start with this year, there are currently 72 vehicles leased through Enterprise and 44 still owned by the City of Liberal. In terms of lease expense, there’s $789,000 in lease payments being made,” Harper said. “Those payments are being made, there’s equity that’s coming from when we sell those vehicles being replaced. There are those city-owned vehicles, then there are the leased vehicles being brought in with lease payments being made, but there were also city-owned vehicles that were sold, which brought $223,000 in equity back to the city. Maintenance expenses have also basically been cut in half since roughly two-thirds of the fleet is now almost brand-new. Downtime has also dropped dramatically since the vehicles aren’t spending that extra time in a shop being worked on or repaired. Fuel costs have also dropped a lot since the fleet overall is much more fuel-efficient. If you look at 2026, the total fleet budget was $763,121, and that’s a savings of $256,000 relative to what we predicted. For 2027, we’re proposing 14 new vehicles come in to replace some of the fleet – there will still be 30 owned by the City of Liberal and 86 will be leased. The lease payments will be around $942,000 with $135,000 coming back to the city in equity from those sales. 2029 is when this program will be fully implemented, and there will be some of the costs that will be fixed as time goes on.”

After some more discussion, Harper concluded his presentation.

In other new business, the commission approved a Special Use Permit for a property at 302 S. Clay Ave. to include mixed use of residential and commercial as well as the annexation of the Oxy properties into Liberal city limits. The commission also approved the 2026 City of Liberal Security Awareness Training Program and the purchase of new school zone flashers for Sunflower Elementary School and Bright Start Early Learning Center.