PEORIA, AZ – Peoria officials have set April 1 as the deadline to eliminate at least 75 vehicles in an effort to conserve resources and cut expenses, said Susan Thorpe, a deputy city manager, according to the Arizona Republic.

There are about 530 vehicles in the fleet, including solid waste trucks and police patrol cars. The eliminated vehicles will be auctioned at Sierra Auction in Phoenix. The auctioneer will keep 4.4 percent of the sale price and the rest will go to the city.

In January, the city announced efforts to cut costs without reducing core services or laying off employees. Eliminating a portion of the fleet is one area that the city has identified could reduce costs and bring in revenue once those vehicles are auctioned.

The Fleet Solutions group has identified 41 vehicles with less than 7,000 miles that can replace older vehicles, Thorpe said. Departments that have minimal use of a city vehicle will no longer have a dedicated vehicle, but will share one.

Short-term goals include eliminating at least 75 low-use vehicles, eliminating take-home vehicles not used for core services, creating an interdepartmental vehicle-share system, and extending vehicle lifecycles by two to three years.

By July 1, the city will implement a "soft freeze" on new vehicle and equipment purchases. As a long-term goal, the Fleet Solutions Group, comprised of city officials, has set January 2010 as a deadline to analyze service capacity and levels and make recommendations to the City Council for the 2011 fiscal budget.