SUBJECT:
Title
An Ordinance of the Town Council of the Town of Erie Adopting and Amending the Town’s Purchasing Policy
Department
DEPARTMENT: Finance
Presenter
PRESENTER(S): Sara Hancock, Director of Finance
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Time
TIME ESTIMATE: 0 minutes
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For time estimate: please put 0 for Consent items.
Fiscal
FISCAL SUMMARY:
N/A
Policy
POLICY ISSUES:
The Town Council must review the Purchasing Policy according to the Town Charter.
Recommendation
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Approve updates to the Purchasing Policy.
Body
SUMMARY/KEY POINTS
As Town operations expand, updates to the Purchasing Policy are necessary to support streamlined processes, meet increases procurement demand, and refine policy to support a transparent procurement process. This update addresses:
• Clearer policy for audit and legal requirements.
• Inclusion of contract-specific policy to support a clear procurement process.
• Increase of purchasing thresholds to support business activities and increased costs of contracts.
BACKGROUND OF SUBJECT MATTER:
The Purchasing Policy is periodically updated to address business needs of the Town and ensure the procurement process is transparent and audit compliant. The following changes are included in this iteration of the Policy:
Legal or Audit Changes:
• Language clarifying the total contract amount must include all amendments and change orders.
• Language clarifying contracts must have an end date; cannot be “evergreen” and must have renewal options.
• Language adding an updated authorized signor list to ensure no employee that is not designated as a division manager or department director is signing outside the appropriate signing authority.
• Clarification on language for each threshold requirements for quotes, bids, sole source, and emergency purchases.
• Clarification on contractual “not to exceed” amounts.
• Clarification for On Call/Blanket contracts and monitoring the balance of the total contract amount.
• Audit compliant guardrails for cooperative purchasing use.
Process Changes:
• Increase of all requisition thresholds by $25,000-50,000 for each approval level. This includes adding the Town Attorney to the approval levels. This is primarily a response to inflation and the increased cost of products and services.
• Additions to the list of items allowable to procure through Annual Budget Appropriation, including water chemicals, insurance, and emergency expenditures.
• Addition of “DO NOT USE” Bidders’ list, for those vendors that have not provided sufficient service or have other compliance issues with the Town.
• Clarification on language and thresholds for cooperative purchasing use.
• IT and Legal Updates for processing requests.
priorities
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attachments
ATTACHMENT(S):
1. Purchasing Policy
2. Ordinance