When picking the make and model of a rental car, requesting a police cruiser sounds like a prank. But it’s a serious ask for law enforcement agencies that contract with Enterprise for vehicle leases.
In 2021, Santa Barbara County entered a five-year agreement with Enterprise to supply the Sheriff’s Office its patrol fleet on a short-cycle basis that allows easy swaps to newer models once vehicles become outdated.
“I’m sure there was merit to it at the time,” county 2nd District Supervisor Laura Capps said while scrutinizing a recent request from the Sheriff’s Office to increase its spending limit with Enterprise by $450,000, which brings the total limit to $3.4 million.
“That’s a flag because we’ve had a pattern of unanticipated costs from the sheriff’s department,” Capps said at the Board of Supervisors’ Nov. 4 meeting. “An unanticipated cost to me would signal that, maybe, it’s not working.”
Capps described the request as “last-minute” after pulling it from the board’s consent agenda. The staff report summarized the request as a response to “extraordinary and largely unforeseeable pandemic-driven cost pressures” that impacted the purchase price of vehicles across the automobile industry.
The original board allocation for the Enterprise agreement was capped at about $3 million annually.
“This request for additional contract purchasing authority is not the result of an expanded program scope or planning deficiencies, but a necessary adjustment to align the contract purchasing authority with current economic realities,” the staff report stated, “that could not have been anticipated when the original agreement was approved in 2021.”
Capps agreed to vote yes on the new purchasing limit after 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson motioned to amend the request. Nelson’s modification included a commitment from the Sheriff’s Office to return to the board sometime before the end of February with research on alternative approaches to compare with Enterprise’s model before renewing future contracts.
“I do want to have some assurances of that, because again, this is about the third or fourth unanticipated cost that’s come before the board,” Capps said. “There’s been a lot of unanticipated costs from the sheriff’s department, and I’m repeating myself because of the consternation that has caused, not just to the board but to other departments and to the public.
“This one gives me less heartburn,” she added before the board voted 5-0 to approve the new purchasing limit, “because it’s not additional pressure on the general fund at a time when we’re considering layoffs in other departments.”
This article appears in Nov 6 – Nov 13, 2025.