BILOXI -- Local government leaders are defending what has been called a shopping spree with millions of dollars of emergency grants from BP, saying they were uncertain what they needed for the unprecedented disaster and didn’t want to be caught ill-equipped.

According to a database of spending compiled by the Associated Press, they bought fleets of expensive SUVs and trucks, boats, personal watercraft, all-terrain vehicles -- even kayaks and a motor home -- and bedecked them with gadgets of every description. They paid government workers overtime and special compensation and hired scores of consultants. All this despite Mississippi’s shoreline being mostly spared the feared deluge of oil.

Much of the equipment would have been needed if large amounts of oil had washed in, local leaders said, and it is being put to use in day-to-day government operations. Some governments, such as Bay St. Louis, Moss Point and Waveland, appeared to be frugal with BP’s money. But some of the governments’ purchases appear to have little direct correlation to the oil disaster and frugality appears not to have been a top consideration.

SAVING TAXPAYERS

“We tried to get as much equipment as we could, so it wouldn’t fall back on the taxpayers of Biloxi,” said Biloxi spokesman Vincent Creel. “If they think there needed to be tighter oversight, that wasn’t our call.”

Biloxi bought 14 expensive trucks and SUVs with BP money, including a new Chevy Tahoe for Mayor A.J. Holloway to drive, one of seven Tahoes it bought, ranging in price from $28,000 to $42,000. Local governments don’t pay state sales tax on purchases.

Creel said Holloway needed the vehicle for oil disaster–related travel, and he was overdue for a replacement for the 2006 GMC Yukon he drove before the BP money flowed. Creel said city agencies were attempting to gather a list of where the vehicles are now and who is driving them, but that had not been supplied as of Tuesday.

South Mississippi governments, the AP database shows, spent nearly $3 million on vehicles and vehicle equipment, more than double the combined amount spent by its sister Gulf states of Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. Florida spent only $15,000 on vehicles and related equipment.

Some local governments shied away from buying passenger vehicles with BP money. Gulfport bought only one, a Chevy Silverado pickup for $34,000.

“Any kind of vehicles generally look a lot more suspicious than working equipment,” said Gulfport Chief Administrative Officer John Kelly. “We shied away from that, and we didn’t have a real need.”

WATER WORK REQUIRES BOAT

Gulfport did buy a couple of boats, including a 30-foot Argus for $150,000. Though this might look spurious, Kelly said, it was needed.

“This is not just a boat -- it’s a rescue boat,” Kelly said. “Our fire department has never had one of those, and we do a lot of underwater work and work on the water. At the time we bought it, we were going out front and working with the Coast Guard, showing them areas we thought needed to be screened off (from oil) …. Not only was it used for that, but it can be used for saving lives. It has a radar on it that can detect a body deep under water, on the bottom.

“Most of what we do here in the city of Gulfport, we ask, ‘Would it pass the ‘60 Minutes’ test?’ That’s a good rule of thumb -- would you want Mike Wallace sticking a microphone in your face asking you about it?