Problems sprout in city’s green vehicles

CITY LEADERS IN ALBUQUERQUE HAVE A REAL PROBLEM ON THEIR HANDS WITH THEIR FLEX-FUEL CITY VEHICLES — SPECIFICALLY ONES THAT ARE USED BY THE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND THE PROBLEM IS FORCING THE MAYOR TO DO SOMETHING HE VOWED TO STOP DOING MORE THAN TWO YEARS AGO JEFF MAHER IS LIVE TO EXPLAIN JEFF IN 2006 MAYOR CHAVEZ ISSUED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER MANDATING THAT ALL NEW CITY VEHICLES COMING INTO THE FLEET WILL RUN ON ALTERNATIVE FUEL BUT NOW BECAUSE OF THE PROBLEMS THAT HAVE SURFACED WITH THE POLICE DEPARTMENT S VEHICLES — IT S TIME TO GO BACK TO UNLEADED our policy up to this point has been not to allow the use of unleaded in those vehicles and we re relaxing that a little bit in hopes of finding a way to resolve the issue JOHN SOLADAY THE CITY S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DIRECTOR SAYS THE CITY HAS 350 VEHICLES RUNNING ON E-85 EVERYDAY — THAT S 85 PERCENT ETHANOL AND 15 PERCENT GASOLINE BUT NOW SOME OF THOSE VEHICLES ARE GOING BACK TO USING JUST GASOLINE AFTER PROBLEMS SURFACED WITH THE POLICE DEPARTMENT S NEW CHEVY TAHOES AND FORD CROWN VICTORIAS A NUMBER OF THOSE VEHICLES HAVE EXPERIENCED FUEL PUMP FAILURES — AND HAVE BEEN SENT BACK TO THE DEALERSHIP TO GET FIXED until they address the issue we re looking at changing our internal policy slightly to enable police officers to run a small percentage of unleaded gasoline through SOLADAY SAYS THE DEALERSHIPS ARE WORKING TO RETRO-FIT THE FUEL PUMPS THE CITY IS NOT FACED WITH ANY COSTS TO FIX THE PROBLEMS — BECAUSE THE VEHICLES ARE COVERED UNDER WARRANTY BUT SOLADAY SAYS IT BECOMES MORE OF A PROBLEM THE LONGER THOSE POLICE VEHICLES ARE IN THE SHOP AND NOT OUT PROTECTING THE STREETS it is the dealer-ships responsibility to help us work through this issue and find a resolution to it and we re working with them to accomplish that SOLADAY COULD NOT TELL US HOW MANY POLICE VEHICLES HAD FUEL PUMP FAILURES BUT HE CALLED IT A SPORATIC ISSUE THE VEHICLES ARE DESIGNED TO LAST SEVEN YEARS BACK TO YOU