Central Council amends procurement language, reaffirms financial policies

The Central City Council on Aug. 26 adopted a resolution reaffirming the city’s financial policies and procedures and approved an amendment that removes language treating architect and engineering services as automatically subject to a separate bid threshold.

The action came after staff presented annual cleanups of the city’s policies. Michelle, a city staff member, described the process: “So this is part of our annual procedure where Michelle starts the process, goes through all the policies, sends the recommendations that she feels like there's some issue that has come up during the year as to why we need to make a change.”

City officials said the annual review is tied to requirements from legislative auditors. Michelle told the council the updates include clarifications to the city credit-card policy and a requirement for supervisors to sign employees’ paper timesheets, which are then scanned and sent to payroll.

Council discussion focused on procurement language that previously referenced a dollar threshold and special rules for architect/engineer services. Council Member Lazaro questioned whether the draft contained typographical errors and asked whether the “greater than $150,000” phrasing and bid requirements belonged in the policy. Council Member Roy moved to remove the architect/engineer exception and related threshold language; Council Member McKinney seconded the amendment.

Council and staff repeatedly discussed how state law treats professional services, with staff noting that architects and engineers typically are procured through an RFQ (request for qualifications) rather than a price-driven bid because project costs are unknown until design. As one council member summarized, “You can't design a project and know what the cost of project is without an engineer.”

City attorney-level review was referenced by staff when state law overlapped with the draft city policy. Staff also noted that federal procurement rules will apply when federal funds (for example ARPA) are used and that those procurements require additional steps to ensure reimbursement.

The council voted unanimously to approve the amendment and then to adopt the revised policy resolution; roll-call tallies recorded all present members voting yes on both the amendment and the main motion.

The adopted changes include (as described in the meeting): clarifying allowable uses of the city credit card, requiring supervisor certification of paper timesheets before payroll processing, and removing explicit architect/engineer bid thresholds from the procurement table while keeping a recommendation column encouraging competitive solicitation where appropriate. Staff said the annual review will continue to occur so changes take effect for the current fiscal year.

Council members and staff emphasized that removing the specific threshold does not prevent the city from seeking multiple quotes, using RFQs, or following state and federal procurement rules when applicable. The council left a “recommendation” column in the procurement table encouraging seeking multiple quotes even when formal bid requirements do not apply.

The resolution was introduced by Council Member Meyer and the initial motion to approve was moved by Council Member McKinney and seconded by Council Member Roy. After the amendment passed by roll call, the council approved the whole resolution by roll call.