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City finance proposes higher purchasing thresholds, new approval tier and local‑vendor preference; council requests final wording
Summary
Finance staff proposed raising department purchasing limits, creating a city manager-plus-finance‑chair approval tier up to $50,000, increasing informal bid thresholds and adding a limited local‑vendor preference; council asked for the local‑vendor definition to remain city-only for now and asked for more committee review.
Jennifer Hallman, interim deputy city manager and chief financial officer, presented proposed changes to Villa Rica's purchasing ordinance aimed at updating authority limits, procurement thresholds and a local‑vendor preference.
Hallman proposed increasing department head approval limits from $2,500 to $5,000, deputy city manager to $20,000, and city manager to $35,000. She also recommended creating a new approval tier that would require the city manager plus a finance committee council member (typically the finance committee chair) to approve purchases up to $50,000; purchases above $50,000 would go to council unless the item had already been approved in the adopted budget.
Under the procurement thresholds staff proposed raising the informal purchase threshold to $5,000 (purchase order only), requiring two written quotes for $5,001'1,000 and raising the three‑written‑quotes threshold and RFQ/RFP thresholds so that $50,000 would be the point at which a formal solicitation is required. Hallman said the proposed thresholds reflect rising costs and mirror changes being discussed at the state level for public‑works bidding.
Nut graf: The staff packet included a proposal for a local vendor preference that would allow a local bidder within the city limits to be awarded when the local bid is within 5% and not more than $3,750 of the lowest nonlocal responsive bid, with an additional $5,000 cap on aggregated purchases to avoid repeated circumvention. After discussion, finance committee members asked staff to keep the local‑vendor definition limited to City of Villa Rica limits for now, rather than expanding it to include both counties.
Council members asked about safeguards to avoid small recurring purchases that would exceed the city's tolerance, and about whether budgeted items should be able to proceed without a council meeting. Hallman said procurements already in the adopted budget could proceed subject to city manager plus finance committee approval for minor changes so council time is used more efficiently.
Ending: Council did not place the proposed purchasing ordinance revisions on the consent agenda and sought additional time for review; staff said it would return with revised language and supporting materials after finance‑committee follow up.
