City Surplus Auction Draws Record Crowd and Sales
A record high of 1,103 bidders registered for the City of
Tulsa's surplus property auction Nov. 5 and sales of vehicles,
equipment and other merchandise brought in more than $800,000. The
auction included 133 vehicles, as well as office equipment,
machinery and unclaimed police property room items.
The City holds two surplus property auctions annually. The next
regularly scheduled surplus property auction will be in the spring
of 2012. A separate vehicle auction may be staged before the next
regularly scheduled property auction.
The City is currently reducing its vehicle fleet, pursuant to a
study commissioned by Mayor Dewey Bartlett's Management Review
Office. CST Fleet Services recommended a reduction of 568 vehicles.
Some of the vehicles sold Saturday were among those identified in
the study. More will be included in the upcoming vehicle auction.
Savings of more than $5 million are expected over five years
because of fleet reductions. Some $2.2 million in scheduled capital
spending on vehicles will not take place because of vehicles not
being replaced.
City Purchasing Agent Larry Hood said the City hopes to have
real-time, online bidding available for the vehicle auction.
Real-time bidding would allow bidders to compete with bidders at
the auction site.
Most of the revenue from surplus property sales is returned to
the City's general fund which is used for day-to-day operation of
most City departments. Revenue from sales of items purchased
through specific "enterprise funds," like those used to operate the
city's water and sewer systems, is returned to those funds.
