"More than $1 million worth of brand new Fairfax County
police cars are sitting unused
The Washington Times
August 28, 1991, Wednesday, Final Edition
Car 54, where are you?
SECTION: Part G; COMMENTARY; EDITORIAL; Pg. G2
If you thought Fairfax County's four-chopper air cavalry
division was a good story, get a load of yet another little item, this one
uncovered by Thomas Heath of The Washington Post: "More than $1 million
worth of brand new Fairfax County police cars are sitting unused on a fenced
grassy lot, their batteries disconnected, purchased because officials wrongly
believed the big sedans they favor would no longer be manufactured."
Naturally, piecing together a story that lays blame for
wasting a million dollars is a tough job, but Mr. Heath seems to have uncovered
all the taxpayers need to know.
* At a cost of $3.2 million, the county bought twice as many
cars as it needed, which will continue depreciating and deteriorating until the
police can use them.
* Like many of the decisions that went into buying the
elaborate furnishings of the government center, including $4 million worth of
new furniture, this one was made because county officials simply didn't know
what they were doing. When county officials found out the Ford Crown Victoria
they purchase for police duty would undergo a design change and be unavailable
in the near future, they asked Chevrolet what it could offer. County officials
claim that Chevrolet said it was downsizing its police model, so they decided
to buy twice as many Fords. Chevrolet says the company never had plans to downsize
its car, which costs $530 less than the Ford. * "No analysis was done to
determine the cost of maintaining the cars or how much money the county would
lose by not earning interest on more than $1 million." As the Republican nominee for county supervisor,
Tom Davis, noted, "This is just another example of lack of appropriate
oversight by elected officials and the delegation to county staff of wide
spending discretion." Whether Mr. Davis is including himself in that group
we don't know, but his point is well taken. A helicopter fleet costing $4,000 a
day. Millions in new furniture costs. Granite flooring and mahogany paneling in
the government center. A fitness room with thousands of dollars worth of
equipment. A $96,000 television system. A $37,000 granite conference table.
Exotic pine trees costing $4,000 apiece. All of which cost more than $100
million (the lion's share of it going to the new government center), a figure
that approximates the deficit the county faces next year. With the approval of the
Board of Supervisors, Fairfax County's top-level bureaucrats have spent the
Moore years building an empire with taxpayer money. Come November, the
taxpayers should act accordingly.
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal
hearings into the police problem in America.
Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a
permanent DOJ office on Police
Misconduct.