Confusion and frustration arose during another discussion about dump trucks at Monday’s Sunflower County Board of Supervisors’ meeting.
Board President Riley Rice was positioned to move ahead with selling back three large county-owned 17-yard dump trucks to the original vendor and then purchasing new ones.
However, District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald contested the move citing: first, that the members have not voted to purchase new trucks; second, that Rice was intermingling the information regarding the small trucks with the large trucks and basically confusing the issues; third, Donald said putting the large trucks on the auction block was a better option to see if they could get more than the $92,000 offered in the buyback agreement.
Additionally, there was also some confusion about the term length of the buyback agreement, since it was extended by the vendor due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
County Administrator Gloria McIntosh said no date was specified in the extension, so Burroughs Truck Company could actually call the contract to an end at any time. It was determined that the original end date was in March, but the extended date was left open so it was up to Burroughs to say when it was up.
No action was taken and the plan is to contact Burroughs for a definitive end date and McWilliams told them to be sure and get it in writing. Rice then said they would hold off on making a decision until they found out
Donald had voiced two stipulations to consider before initiating the buyback. First, the members of the board have to vote to buy the two new large dump trucks. Second, "A buyback is not a trade-in so if it's a $51,000 or $49,000 difference you've still got to advertise because the new truck costs more than $50,000,” Donald said.
Rice began the conversation by stating, “We have one new dump truck, now we are trying to do the buyback on the other two dump trucks because that was our plan. In three years we had planned to do a buyback because we have one year warranty on the dump trucks so, now it's time for us to do the buyback.”
Rice asserted that now is the time to do it because the vendor has offered $92,000 and the auctioneer said he wasn't able to beat the $92,000 price.
Donald said, “That's a whole different conversation, the new trucks are seven-yards, the buyback is 19-yard.” Donald also questioned the logic of their plan. “Why would you let Burroughs have a truck for $92,000 that the insurance company just gave you $134,000 for, you're beating yourself out of $42,000.”
Donald's advice is to advertise the truck for sale to see if they can get more than $92,000 for them. “If you don't… take the $92,000. I've been doing this for 34 years you don't just sit there and take one man's word for $92,000, because he's going to turn around and sell them for a hundred and something thousand dollars," said Donald.
Rice indicated that the county leaders have been procrastinating on making a decision about the trucks and he wanted to move forward with the original plan.
"Let me ask another question, this is all got me so confused I don't think I understand what we're doing," said Attorney Johnny McWilliams. He asked if they had made arrangements to buy new trucks to replace the ones they were planning on selling back. Rice said yes, Donald said no and they went back and forth several times.
“That's why I am confused,” McWilliams said.
Donald told Rice they were putting the cart before the horse, but Rice denied his allegation and then asked McWilliams for guidance. McWilliams told him that in order to do what he was planning, to sell the old trucks and buy new large dump trucks, they would have to do the bidding through the reverse auction process.
Rice maintained that’s what they were trying to do now, initiate the reverse auction process. Donald stressed that that was not what Rice originally stated, but Rice argued that it was. He maintained that making the purchase is what they had agreed to do. "And if we're not going to follow our plan, we shouldn't have planned it," Rice added.
Donald said, “My vote will be no because you don't know what we're going to deal with. We just bought two seven-yard trucks. If the other two 19-yard dump trucks are running well then why would you sit there and get rid of something for $92,000 and spend $160,000?”
Rice’s argument was that if they keep the current trucks they may have maintenance issues with them and may not get as much for them in a trade-in later on. He said they were trying to turn the trucks over every three years.
District 5 Supervisor Gloria Dickerson then raised a question about whether Burroughs, who offered the buyback, would still buy the trucks back if his company did not have the lowest bid for the new trucks. McWilliams said that would depend on the buyback agreement.
District 3 Supervisor Ben Gaston then asked Donald a question regarding his earlier statement about putting the trucks up for auction. He wanted to know if the deadline had passed for the buybacks and was it too close to initiate the auction.
Donald made several attempts to answer him, but Rice kept cutting across his response. "Will you just let me answer him?" Donald said to Rice.
"I'm not going to let you just keep telling him that," Rice responded. “You can't stop me from talking,” said Donald. Rice clapped back, “I didn't say I was going to stop you from talking. Just hold it Glenn, listen Glenn you ain't got to say nothing else, hold it,” Rice said.
Donald then responded, “I got the right as a board member to say what I got to say.”
Unyielding, Rice continued, “Be quiet. I'll let you say what you going to say and I'm going to say what I'm going to say. I'm not going to over talk you, but I'm trying to tell Ben that the time will be running out for the buyback.”
Rice said they have to give the vendor the opportunity to buy the trucks back now or they would not get the $92,000 per their agreement.
“Now, I ain't trying to push anything up on nobody and I ain't going to let nobody push nothing up on me. I'm going to say what I have to say and I am not arguing.” said Rice. Then seemingly addressing Gaston, Rice said, “I am telling you what our agreement was and they don't want me to tell you what the agreement is.”
Gaston then stated that the only thing he was trying to find out was the timeline, if they had time to put the trucks up for auction and if not, to go ahead and sell them to Burroughs for the buyback.
