Atlanta’s top elected official is trading in his 2007 Ford Taurus.
Mayor Kasim Reed will soon be driven around town in one of two new GMC Yukon Denalis.
City officials say the upgrade is befitting a mayor of a big city and represents a significant improvement in recommended executive protection.
Critics are crying foul at the price tag and the image that a shiny new SUV displays.
"I don't understand how we can go from the State of the City speech that points out how much money the city has saved and then turn around and spend $120,000 on two top-of-line SUVs,” said Barbara Payne, executive director of the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation. “To me, it absolutely sends the wrong message to taxpayers."
But Peter Aman, the city’s chief operating officer, said it is not that simple.
“What we are doing is switching from sedans to SUVs,” Aman said. “They are safer and more secure for the mayor of a big city to travel in.”
When Reed was elected, Aman said there was an immediate need to overhaul most of the city’s existing vehicles.
In all, more than half of the fleet was past its usable life, Aman said.
More than $10 million will be spent to upgrade the fleet, which also will include large items like new firetrucks and garbage trucks.
As part of that, there are also around 150 new vehicles that would go to the Atlanta Police Department, including 90 new patrol cars, 30 detective cars, two crime-scene vans and 11 sport utility vehicles.
“Of those 11 SUVs, two are to be used for the mayor, executive staff or visiting dignitaries,” Aman said.
The two SUVs that are being used by Reed -- technically driven by his executive protection unit -- come at a base price of $56,000 and $61,000 and have leather interiors.
The cars still must have lights, radios and sirens added, which will raise the cost. The other nine will be used as patrol cars.
“We do try to be as careful as we can to taxpayer funds and we are committed to that," Aman said, "but we also want to keep the employees and the mayor safe and secure."
The Ford Tauruses that Reed used will re-enter the APD’s fleet and be used by detectives.
Payne said the city should have kept the sedans, purchased cheaper cars, or worked with a local dealer to seek a donation.
“Why was it a Denali versus a lower-end vehicle? To me, the visual sends the wrong message,” Payne said.
But security expert Dwayne Bishop, who spent 20 years with the Dallas Police Department in dignitary protection, said a worse message would be having an official injured, kidnapped or killed, because he wasn't protected in a sedan.
"I wonder what took Atlanta so long to switch to SUVs," said Bishop, who runs his own security firm, while also working as an NBA security representative assigned to the Dallas Mavericks.
Mayors from Dallas to Detroit to Baltimore are driven around in SUVs for business. Bishop said it would be a disaster if an assassin tried to ram a Taurus, adding that SUVs give drivers better sight lines and more power to maneuver out of dangerous situations.
"The threat level is always there. Those guys get all kind of threats on them and are always exposed," Bishop said. "I see Atlanta as being very proactive in this, instead of being reactive."
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