Council committee moves to align procurement threshold with state law; public hearing set Oct. 14

The West Haven legislative matters committee on Sept. 9 advanced an amended ordinance to update the city's procurement threshold so the dollar amount that triggers formal sealed bidding matches the Connecticut General Statutes (currently $35,000). The committee requested a public hearing on the draft ordinance and scheduled it for Oct. 14.

Director of Finance Michael Gormeny told the committee that the city’s $10,000 threshold had not been changed since 2007 and that rising costs for supplies and services had increasingly required formal bids for work that in prior years the city had handled by smaller-amount quotes. Gormeny said he and procurement staff reviewed other municipalities and the recently amended state statute and recommended mirroring the state threshold to reduce administrative delays and improve efficiency.

Mayor Dorinda Borer said the administration updated purchasing policy and internal safeguards before bringing the ordinance forward, and she described cumulative-vendor reporting and documentation requirements that will still govern purchases under the higher threshold.

The committee agreed to request a public hearing on the amended ordinance and to present the item to the full council after that hearing. During the meeting council members asked staff to quantify the administrative savings; Gormeny said the purchasing office advertised roughly 60 RFPs/RFQs last year and that raising the threshold could produce annual savings in advertising/administrative costs, though he advised the exact savings would require further calculation.

Next steps: public hearing Oct. 14, after which the council will consider adopting the ordinance to raise the local procurement threshold to the state-set amount.