Ward 3 Alderman Sir Johnathan Rucker cast the sole vote against the city buying three Chevy Tahoes and a Dodge pickup truck this week.
The Tahoes will be driven by the mayor, the police chief and a police captain. Their current vehicles will be passed along to police officers. The truck will be used by the animal control officer.
Rucker said he is opposed to the purchase because he believes police vehicles are regularly being driven outside of Yazoo City with no legitimate purpose.
“They are regularly going down the highway outside of Yazoo City, and that leads to wear and tear on these vehicles, “Rucker said. “We need to be taking care of taxpayer dollars. If we keep these vehicles inside of Yazoo City, there won’t be as many miles on them.”
Rucker said he is regulary getting calls about police vehicles being spotted in other cities.
“This is on Saturdays and Sundays when nothing is going on,” Rucker said.
“Even though it’s in the budget, we’ve been spending so much money on this,” Rucker said. “No one wants to answer my questions about these vehicles going out of town. These vehicles continue to go out of town, and I’m not just talking bout one day, I’m talking about all the days of the week.”
Delaware said the police department needs the vehicles, and the city now buys three new vehicles each year to keep the fleet maintained.
She said that before she became mayor the city had failed to maintain its fleet, and the results were a disaster.
“It had not been done for some time before I got here, and we had a bunch of raggedy cars that were breaking down,” Delaware said. “We had to sell them all.”
