City donates $45,000 worth of cars

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The City of Wilmington is donating more than $45,000 worth of vehicles this year to non-profits and charities.

In doing so, however, the city is losing money.

At the council's meeting this week, officials passed a resolution to donate 21 vehicles they considered surplus property to local non-profits in the area.

The breakdown on who gets what is detailed out in the resolution the council passed this week. Non-profit The First Fruit Foundation will be receiving 12 of the 21 vehicles.

Volunteer Isaac Buchanan says the donated cars are incredibly valuable in day-to-day operations.

"As a non-profit, agency it's hard to come up with funding for vehicles," Buchanan said. "You kind of get used to the help and without those vehicles, I don't know where we would go."

These vehicles would have been sold online to recoup what the city said was about $45,000. In the city manager's review of the resolution, he said there could be negative effects of the resolution if passed.

"This will cause the fleet fund to not have adequate revenue and result in higher leaser rates to the general fund and all other funds for the replacement vehicles," City Manager Sterling Cheatham.

City officials now said they are looking to future plans.

"We're gonna see what other cities are doing then staff will make a recommendation that council can then act on should they desire to change the policy," city spokesperson Dylan Lee said.

The city says it is committed to working with non-profits, but it might be time to rethink the way donations are handled in the future.

CLICK HERE to see the vehicle breakdown and read the resolution and letter.