2024-08-24 18:38:11
When Mayor Shantao took office in January 2023, she ordered the Oakland Department of Public Works to purchase a Ford SUV for official travel, and she has been using this vehicle since April 2023.
However, there is a problem. According to a report released earlier this week, the City of Oakland has not made any payments in the 16 months since it purchased the vehicle From Aucklandside.
“To date, the City of Oakland has not paid for the loaner vehicles provided and has not purchased vehicles for use by the Mayor’s Office,” the city’s Department of Public Works said in a statement to The Oakland Press earlier this month.
Thao initially asked her staff to buy her a Ford Explorer, which can only be found at the local Uptown Ford dealership, and the city ordered the vehicle in March 2023.
But as repairs related to the mandatory recall stalled vehicle deliveries for months, the dealer offered her a Ford Expedition as a temporary replacement until the Explorer could be fully repaired, an offer that was quickly accepted by Mayor Tao. .
However, when the Discovery was finally ready to depart in October 2023, the mayor said she changed her mind and wanted to keep the Discovery. This led to the city quickly canceling its order for the Explorer, beginning a months-long ordeal in which Uptown Ford had no idea how they would be compensated for the SUV that Mayor Thao was still using.
“I don’t know what’s going on over there in the city, but we’ve had a vehicle that hasn’t been paid for in over a year. Does it sound like you haven’t figured out a solution yet?
City officials told The Oakland Press that the delay was at least partly due to the intense effort to address the city’s then-ongoing $177 million budget shortfall that tied up staff normally tasked with resolving delinquent car payments. Despite the setback, they assured the news site that negotiations are ongoing to fairly compensate the dealer for the vehicle rental and purchase the SUV at a “discounted price.”
In fact, a sales contract obtained by The Oaklandside states that the city plans to pay $56,000 for the car, about $18,000 after rent. That adds up to about $74,000, according to the manufacturer’s website, which is about $10,000 more than the full-featured, highest-trim 2024 Ford Explorer model.
this chronicle speaks A former Libby Schaff administration official criticized Tao for not choosing a more economical vehicle. And, the newspaper noted, San Francisco Mayor London Breed does not have a city-owned car but is typically driven by police officers.
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Photo from Wikimedia
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