CAPE MAY – Cape May City Council tabled a resolution Tuesday, Dec. 5, that would have adopted a green fleet policy for municipal vehicles.

The policy directs the city to “make every effort to obtain the ‘cleanest’ vehicle possible” when purchasing vehicles for its fleet. There are exceptions to the low-emission vehicle policy as they relate to cost/benefit analysis or potential disruptions to service levels.

City Engineer Paul Dietrich said at the meeting that one purpose for the policy was the satisfaction of state promulgated best practices, which are a way of gaining points toward a threshold that must be met if interruptions of state aid are to be avoided. Given the past history of the city’s performance in the state best practices survey, it is unlikely that the city would ever drop to a point where its state aid would be jeopardized, but Dietrich was noting that this policy represents automatic points in that process.

In April the city signed an agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management to lease 33 vehicles. When tabling the green fleet resolution, council specifically asked that the new policy be vetted with Enterprise to ensure that the new policy and the fleet management agreement are not at odds with each other.

Deputy Mayor Lorraine Baldwin added her concern that more discussion was needed on the policy, especially on the practical implications of moving the city’s fleet to low-emission vehicles. Baldwin was not against the policy but expressed a desire for more discussion on the terms.

The end result was that the resolution was tabled indefinitely pending results of running the policy by Enterprise and further council discussion.

Contact the author, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.