Contract Mechanics Walk Out at LA County Sheriff’s 6,300-Unit Fleet, Report Says

Source: The Current Report ↗

Contract mechanics who maintain the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department fleet walked out Oct. 30 after talks between the department and contractor Centerra broke down, The Current Report said, citing sources familiar with the negotiations. The report said both sides made demands, no agreement was reached and no functioning replacement arrangement was in place.

The department’s current bid documents show the size of the job: 6,348 vehicles and pieces of equipment, served from one full-service repair location and about 27 satellite maintenance facilities that require contractor staffing at each site. The list includes 1,306 black-and-white all-wheel-drive emergency response SUVs, 337 black-and-white emergency response sedans, inmate transport buses and vans, 118 off-road ATVs and 31 boats.

Centerra took over the work from Penske Truck Leasing under a contract the Board of Supervisors approved on Sept. 15, 2021. The board letter estimated the first-year cost at $22.2 million for a fleet of about 6,350 vehicles, with a five-year initial term anticipated to start Nov. 1, 2021.

A Nine-Month Stopgap

An Oct. 27 motion by Supervisor Kathryn Barger says the county exercised the first of two available two-year extensions to avoid disrupting service while a successor agreement is negotiated, a step it says “has created other delays and challenges.” The motion does not describe those challenges.

It asks the board to let the sheriff or a designee sign new fleet contracts, amendments and purchase orders for up to nine months, within budgeted fiscal 2026-27 allocations. The department would report to the board every four months on expenditures, contingency plans and a long-term solution.

The motion also spells out what depends on the shops. Beyond patrol units, the department’s Court Services Transportation Bureau uses buses and vans to take incarcerated people from four jail facilities to court and medical appointments. The contractor also maintains emergency communications equipment, radios and mobile dispatch computers.

What the Next Contractor Must Do

The department issued its successor solicitation, RFP 731-SH, on March 3, with proposals due May 29. The motion says responses are being evaluated. The RFP anticipates a four-year term with extension options and requires bidders to show at least five years of experience in the past 10 running fleet services for at least 500 vehicles, including at least 50 police emergency response vehicles.

The statement of work sets a 90% monthly preventive maintenance compliance rate and a quick-fix turnaround of less than two hours.

Conditions Reported Before the Walkout

The Current Report also cited messages describing detective bureau cars 11 to 15 years old, breakdowns during work, malfunctioning air conditioning or heating and no available replacements. A separate message described repairs taking months, even on simple jobs, and attributed the delays to too few technicians with the necessary skills.

Those accounts are unattributed, and the county records cited here do not address the walkout or those conditions.