Council updates purchasing policy, designates Wendy Cole as purchasing officer (to be finalized in September)

The Ithaca Common Council committee on Aug. 20 approved sending an updated city purchasing policy and manual to the council’s regular September meeting and designated Wendy Cole as the purchasing officer required under New York law. Alderperson Letterman summarized and moved the item; it was seconded by Alderperson Wynne and advanced unanimously.

Letterman noted the change follows the retirement of Deputy Controller Scott Andrew and that “the city is required under the general municipal law to designate a purchasing officer,” language he used while explaining the procedural need for the designation.

City staff said the manual includes several minor changes and that there may be additional staff tweaks before the September meeting. “We did receive a couple of staff comments on additional tweaks, since the time we submitted the agenda. So we're gonna try and take a look at those, and we might be sending you an slightly updated version of the purchasing policy,” a staff presenter said.

Councilors asked how the move from paper forms to electronic records will be handled. A staff member acknowledged the city still uses legacy paper forms in some processes and said the goal is to retain hard copies where necessary while eliminating outdated triplicate carbon-copy forms. “One of the things we're trying to do away with… we have something like, there's this we're still using this, like, triplicate, like, carbon copy paper form of something that was required by the purchasing policy from, like, you know, 1950 something,” the staff member said, describing the effort to remove obsolete processes.

The committee agreed to place the revised manual on the September agenda for final approval. Staff said they will highlight any post-submission edits for council review before the final vote.