Thirty-seven 2025 Ford vehicles intended to be used as Oakland Police Department patrol cars are instead sitting idle on a San Leandro dealership lot — and the city may be unable to pay for them.

The city apparently has money allocated to buy the vehicles, despite its well publicized budget problems. The holdup revolves around a disagreement among city officials over whether the funds can be spent on the purchases.

About a year ago, the city set aside money to buy a fleet of new cars for the Oakland police department, but finance staff said Tuesday they were unsure how the city will pay for the vehicles. It’s unclear how much money was set aside for the cars. 

Erin Roseman, the city’s finance director since 2021, said Oakland could not tap into the equipment services fund, which pays for the maintenance and servicing of city vehicles, to buy the cars due to federal regulations. Council members said the city had previously used that fund to buy new cars.