Update: Troy Citizens United confirmed with Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard that they would respond if requested with their MCV (mobile command vehicle) if requested by a local municipality. Council and members of the police and fire department we can wipe the need for that right off the budget. Wow amazing Troy Citizens United can find $500K in savings in the budget yet our elected officials and city manager just want to keep spending money as if the millage had passed.  (3/4/10)


It appears that the combined efforts of the police and fire departments in wanting to purchase a command "BUS" have gone a foul. We seem to question this expenditure in these economic times. We have seen data from comparable departments and cannot ascertain how they could go 3/4 of a million dollars over budget.

The second question is need. Our last recollection is that we already have a command bus stored up at the fire station on John R north of Square Lake. Our next question is what would be a cost to retro fit that bus. We are certain it is far less than the 700K plus being spent here on the new one.

Everyone also needs to know the story behind how we got our first command unit. The police and fire department got the vehicle on surplus from the SMART system for nearly nothing and along with a second unit for parts. The unit was converted by combined personnel at a fraction of the cost then or now for a comparable unit. This idea makes sound financial sense. Without the sweetheart deal then from SMART we would have never had our first command RV.

Flash forward to today. If there is a need for some remote reason that the current bus cannot be retrofitted or repaired should it be broken for some reason, why not look to departments around us and buy in on a shared basis. For example if Sterling Heights has one, and it does, contact Sterling Heights and ask if they would be interested in selling an interest in the bus to us, as well after all isn't  that what Szerlag has been preaching, regionalization. We already do this in a somewhat similar manner to other communities through the special response unit housed at the training center and its vehicles.

This purchase under current economic conditions in this manner is plain ridiculous. Maybe we should not need to look for a shared basis at all, if we contracted the police services to Oakland County they already own one like this and a tank for the swat team and a boat for the marine unit, and at a whole lot better price, right Chief Mayer? Oh lets not forget the upcoming budget maybe the police and fire department will ask for a helicopter so we can be just like Oakland County too!