Saving the City of Davis GEM Fleet

How the Davis GEM Cars are Getting Their Groove Back

Last Sunday, on a blog-free and car-free day that involved waking up late, reading a copy of the NY Times from Newsbeat, buying a burger  from Burgers & Brew, and then washing it down with some iced tea at the Delta of Venus, I was accosted by several friends and acquaintances who were concerned about the front page article in the Enterprise (weird that I can link for free to any article in The New York Times, but not the Enterprise…) that gleefully told of a used electric car sale.  This feature story was not a paid advertisement, although it read like one.

The story detailed how the City of Davis planned on selling half of our GEM car fleet.  Those little white electric cars that make it so easy to spot Dalebrities are slated for auctioning to the lowest bidder in Arizona, or some such place.  I was demoralized, but decided to ignore the matter until I had finished my Sunday fun.

Now, I’m live-blogging from the Davis City Council meeting.  After the jump, find out how the GEM cars are going to be saved from a wretched and boring existence carting around golfers in Scottsdale.

6:45pm – I bumped into Councilmember Don Saylor immediately before the meeting.  He immediately boosted my confidence that, indeed, the Council had not signed off on the plan to sell one-half of the GEM car fleet.  Don also assured me that he planned on calendaring this issue for a full hearing at a future meeting.

7:05pm – During Council/City Manager Communications, City Manager Bill Emlen commented that the city had received a “slew of call and emails” about this matter.  He indicated that the Enterprise piece did not tell the whole story and that they were preparing a fuller account.  Mr. Emlen also stated, in direct conflict with the Enterprise story, that a “vast majority” of the fleet would be kept.

7:08pm – Councilmember Saylor spoke on behalf on stopping the sale of the GEM fleet until a fuller discussion occurred.  The rest of the council seemed to agree, with Councilmember Souza asking if the 10 underused vehicles were being cannibalized for parts.  The City Manager answered that a couple were being used for parts, the others were just not being used very often.

7:10pm – Mayor Greenwald states, “Staff needs to come back and convince us that this is necessary.”

7:20something pm – Public Comments ensue.  Yours truly decides to participate in Show & Tell.  Below, find my notes which may or may not resemble my actual comments,

” [Appropriate greetings.]
[Introduce yourself.]
[Insert Sunday morning story from blog intro]… and now for the meat

I will not address the budgetary matters cited, because budgets are a matter of priorities.  Instead, I’d like to point out that these vehicles were given at no cost to the City.  I hope that city staff comes back to Council with an estimate on how much these vehicles cost to operate per mile, in the past and in the future with estimated repair and maintenance costs.  These costs should then be compared to a gas guzzler or hybrid vehicle.

The Climate Action Team begins meeting on Thursday.  One of my ideas for this group is to increase the usability of the GEM fleet by buying doors for all of the vehicles.  GEMs can be used during the rain and cold, if they have doors.

If a councilmember chooses not to use their GEM, it should be assigned to a pool of City Commissioners or a local non-profit for personal use, thus increasing the visibility of alternative vehicles.

As stated already, many of these vehicles are tragically underused.  Neglecting a resource does not mean that said resource is not valuable.

This community hears many people talk about luring green businesses to this town.  Selling our green vehicles with no public discussion sends exactly the wrong message.  How about starting an incentive program that leases these cars at a low rate to new green businesses?

Auctioning off one of the symbols of Davis’ environmental progressivism to the highest bidder outside of our town is demoralizing to our ongoing efforts to create a more sustainable community.

We must embrace the symbols of the ideas that we love and find a way to make them work.  I hope that this Council, staff, and the community will work together to make these and other alternative vehicles a more regular presence on our city streets.”

Ok, that’s that for now.  What?  What did you want? How to bring the sexy back to electric cars?  We had to come out on the serious tip to stop something that is already happening.  Supply your own amusing ways to make our little white GEM cars sexy, fresh and hip in the comments below.

Best comment will get a one-hour tour around Davis in a GEM car (don’t doubt us, we can make it happen.)