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CITY COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM |
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Department: |
City Manager’s Office |
Commission Meeting Date: September 6, 2016 |
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Staff Contact: |
Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager Bryan Kidney, Director of Finance |
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Recommendations/Options/Action Requested: |
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Approve a purchasing policy for the City of Lawrence and adopt on first reading, Ordinance No. 9287, changing the threshold for formal bidding from $15,000 to $50,000. |
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Executive Summary: |
The Purchasing Procedures were last updated in 2011. However, it has been a number of years since the purchasing limits outlined in the policy have been revised. The current policy requires extensive process for purchases of relatively small value. For example, every purchase over $1,000 requires City Manager level approval and every purchase over $15,000 requires a system of internal approvals, but also requires City Commission approval. It should be recognized that any process has an opportunity cost and such cost should be balanced with appropriate purchasing controls in line with the expense of the item. Staff’s goal in updating the policy was to enhance efficiency while maintaining appropriate purchasing controls to ensure the best value for the City of Lawrence.
Attached is a summary of proposed changes to the policy, the majority of which center around adjusting various purchasing approval thresholds within the policy. Staff recommends the current purchasing procedures document be modified into two separate documents- this policy document and a more detailed procedure document. Staff intends to update the 2011 purchasing procedures to accompany this policy document with other minor clean up.
As part of this project, staff researched purchasing thresholds in other communities. The City of Lawrence purchasing thresholds were quite low in comparison. Staff also determined that during a one year period of July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016, there were approximately 178 purchase items on the City Commission agenda, of which 139 were under the $100,000 threshold and 39 over the $100,000 threshold. There would be efficiencies gained from increasing the purchasing thresholds in terms of time required for bidding processes and other internal processes, but also in terms of reducing the number of items prepared for the City Commission agenda. Under the proposed changes, the Commission would still authorize all claims and approve purchases over $100,000. |
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Strategic Goal Area: |
Other |
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Fiscal Impact (Amount/Source): |
The update to the purchasing policy will not have any direct financial impact. However, the policy will result in greatly improved efficiency for staff and the City Commission. |
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Attachments: |
Summary of Proposed Changes to Policy 2011 Purchasing Procedures document (current policy and procedures) |
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