The purchase of a new motorcycle for the Peachtree City Police Department is in peril after two city council members strongly opposed it Thursday night.
The matter was tabled at the request of council member Vanessa Fleisch, who was set up to be the deciding vote. Mayor Don Haddix and Councilwoman Kim Learnard were in favor of the purchase, and Councilmen Eric Imker and George Dienhart were against, creating a 2-2 deadlock.
Imker and Dienhart said at the outset that they weren’t convinced the purchase was a necessity. Police Chief H.C. “Skip” Clark said the department’s current motorcycle has been useful in a variety of ways, including the ability to run radar in certain areas of school safety zones where the standard police cars don’t fit.
The motorcycle is also small enough to use on the path system when an emergency arises, and it can weave through traffic jams much easier than a police cruiser, Clark noted.
Dienhart suggested ditching the motorcycle program to put two officers patrolling the path system on ATVs. Clark explained that ATVs would have much longer response times than the motorcycle, and to put two officers on path patrols 24 hours a day the department would have to hire 10 new police officers.
Dienhart suggested that the bike would not be effective for cart path patrols because “You’re not sneaking up on anybody with one of those. This is a bad purchase.”
Imker said the last evaluation of the police vehicle fleet showed 83 vehicles and 69 personnel, and he suggested perhaps the department could get rid of a couple of vehicles in exchange for the bike.
“We need to start finding ways to save money, not spend it,” Imker said. “… We have a huge problem with our budget that we’re trying to continue to climb out of.”
Chief Clark noted that the motorcycle currently used by the department was in lieu of purchasing a new patrol car some two years ago.
Clark’s proposal was to purchase a Victory brand police motorcycle and pay for it over five years instead of leasing a Harley Davidson for two years, which is that company’s standard lease contract length, and having to turn it in for a brand-new bike and lease term.
Purchasing the Victory bike would have cost nearly $100 a month more than the Harley lease, but at the end of its five year service time, the Victory model would have an estimated value of $10,000 to $12,000, Clark added.
At that point, the city could look at trading the bike in for a cost reduction on a new model, Clark noted.
Imker said the matter to him was a chance to cut spending because the city is not projected to have a revenue increase this year.
Dienhart added that the motorcycle in his estimation was “a non-essential public safety item because this officer can be in a car.”
Haddix disagreed, saying he has seen a large number of complaints about path issues in citizen emails, and he thinks the motorcycle unit is essential.
Learnard said with the police department being criticized for issues on the cart paths, she didn’t think it was time to remove the only motorcycle the city has in its police arsenal.
While the decision was delayed until the May 3 council meeting, the department’s lease on the current Harley Davidson model expires the end of May.
Dienhart questioned why he has never seen the police motorcycle in a school zone when he takes his four kids to and from school. Clark said he didn’t know how to answer that question.
