Washington County leases two new SUVs for commissioners, elected officials

Jan 16, 2025 By Mike Jones 5 min read

A pair of brand-new SUVs are now available for the Washington County commissioners, elected row officers and other county leaders to use for official business, which will cost taxpayers more than $100,000 combined over the life of the five-year leases.

The two 2025 Ford Explorers arrived Dec. 19 through the county’s fleet vehicle lease program and are meant for traveling to events, meetings or conferences, which officials hope will ultimately save money over the life of the leases due to anticipated higher reimbursements from the federal mileage rate that has ballooned to 70 cents per mile this year.

“The commissioners, they need to be busy and out promoting the county,” said chief of staff Daryl Price, who facilitated the lease for the two vehicles for county officials to use. “If they’re using them, they know they’re doing good work for the county.”

Just like the 46 other fleet vehicles used by the county for various departments – such as the district attorney’s office, probation, the sheriff’s department and parks and recreation – the two SUVs were procured through a contract with BBL Fleet of Bridgeville. The new SUV leases cost $853 per month each, meaning the county will pay $20,448 per year, and a total of $102,415 for the two vehicles through this five-year lease program. The two Ford Explorers – one is black and the other is grey – are the model’s Active trim level with all-wheel drive, which retail for around $50,000 each.

Commission Chairman Nick Sherman said the county recently received a federal grant to purchase several electric vehicles and charging stations, which “freed these other vehicles up” for funding to lease the SUVs for official business.

“They’re not just for the commissioners. They’re fleet vehicles,” Sherman said. “Anyone can drive them when they are doing county business.”

In addition to the commissioners, the vehicles are reserved for elected row officers and department directors, who must make a formal request to Price in order to use them for county business. The vehicles are supposed to be parked at the county’s offices in Washington, although they apparently can be kept overnight at a personal home, if needed.

The two vehicles were parked outside the Crossroads Center building in the reserved spots for Sherman and Commissioner Electra Janis next to Commissioner Larry Maggi’s personal vehicle during the board’s Jan. 9 voting meeting.

According to 2024 expense records released by the commissioners and the controller’s office at the request of the Observer-Reporter newspaper, the three board members were reimbursed a combined total of $3,204 for mileage on their personal vehicles last year. Maggi received the highest reimbursement amount with $1,193, followed closely by Janis at $1,086 and Sherman with $925. In addition to travel around the county, the three commissioners each expensed three separate trips to central Pennsylvania for various statewide conferences and meetings, while Maggi visited Pittsburgh on three occasions.

Janis said she didn’t expense all of her travel last year, so the figures might not be indicative of the total amount of mileage she could have been reimbursed for while doing county business.

“The keys are going to be located with the chief of staff, but the (SUVs) will be parked in the county parking lot. It will be driven to work-related meetings,” Janis said. “I did not sell my (personal) car. I’m just using this when it’s needed for work.”

But Maggi has concerns about how the process will work and whether the vehicles will be driven for personal errands beyond official uses. He said there was “informal talk” in the commissioners offices about leasing a fleet vehicle for their use, but he did not know it had become a reality until the two SUVs were delivered last month.

“Do we want to drive one of our cars or take a fleet vehicle?” Maggi said of their options. “It’s difficult to delineate between work and personal things.”

With the SUVs now here, Maggi said he has the option of using them upon request, but he’ll likely continue driving his personal pickup truck to conferences or county functions.

Sherman used the vehicle earlier this month for a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with Pennsylvania’s newly sworn-in U.S. Sen. David McCormick, who has ties to Washington County, which officials hope they can utilize to build a rapport with him to funnel more federal dollars this way. Meanwhile, Janis said she and Sherman visited Beaver County this month to tour its 911 facility as officials here continue to work on the county’s new public safety building.

Sherman added that county spokesman Patrick Geho took one of the vehicles to Harrisburg recently for a public relations conference, and county Human Services Director John Tamiggi will need it because of the amount of travel he does for his role.

“There is a ton of traveling taking place, whether you’re in downtown Pittsburgh or Erie or Harrisburg,” Sherman said.

Each vehicle would have to be driven nearly 15,000 miles each year to break even on the lease payment compared to the federal reimbursement of 70 cents per mile. However, that figure does include reimbursements for gasoline, which would have to be paid back to county employees, although Sherman and Janis were given credit cards to use for fuel purchases.

“It makes sense for fleet vehicles. It was a wash (before),” Price said of paying mileage reimbursement. “Now we have an asset.”