Some City Council Member Vote Against Mayor Vehicle Lease, Citing Budget Concerns

Jamestown City Council (August 28, 2023)

Concerns about the 2024 budget are why some Jamestown City Council members voted against renewing a lease for the Mayor’s vehicle.

The resolution to renew a lease for a 2023 Chevrolet Trailblazer with Ed Shults Chevrolet for $12,204 that replaces a current lease that expires August 31, 2023 passed Council by a vote of 5 to 4. Council members Marie Carrubba, Andrew Faulkner, Kim Ecklund, and Randy Daversa voted no.

Ecklund said the timing of renewing a vehicle lease is an issue for her, “It’s a tough time to lease a vehicle for a mayor candidate when, I’ll be honest with you, I think we need to look in budget time at all the vehicles that we have in the fleet and in lease. And if they (Shults) would have extended it until the end of the year to allow us to do that in budget time that probably would have been the best option.”

Ecklund is running to be Jamestown Mayor on the Republican ticket against incumbent Democrat Eddie Sundquist.

Council Member at Large Jeff Russell stated at the work session prior to Monday night’s voting session that he contacted Shults Chevrolet about whether the lease on the Mayor’s vehicle could be extended to the end of year, like the other lease agreements the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency has for their vehicles, “So, Shults was nice enough to construct this lease and hold this lease, so the mayor’s vehicle would be a lower lease payment. So, the way it was explained to me was, ‘No, we can’t extend it. The other leases were done through manufacturers. His lease was done through us.'”

Russell said he’s in favor of whoever is Mayor having access to a city vehicle, adding that if there are concerns about misuse of that vehicle then a GPS unit could be installed in the car to track its use.

Other actions by City Council Monday night included the approval of an agreement with the Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association Local 137 regarding the implementation of the FEMA SAFER grant.

The City of Jamestown was awarded the $1.8 million grant earlier this year to use toward the hiring of eight new firefighters. City Council approved the city moving forward with those hires in May with the stipulation that the city hire an outside attorney to negotiate the staffing agreement with the firefighter’s union.