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River Heights council adopts resolution to raise formal bidding threshold to $25,000
Summary
The council unanimously adopted Resolution 5‑2025 to update the city’s accounting and procurement policy, raising the formal bid requirement from $10,000 to the state threshold of $25,000 to allow more flexibility for smaller specialty projects.
The River Heights City Council unanimously adopted Resolution 5‑2025 on Sept. 2 to revise the city’s accounting and procurement policy, raising the dollar threshold that triggers formal competitive bidding from $10,000 to $25,000.
Treasurer Michelle Jensen explained the change, saying the state allows the city to use the higher $25,000 threshold and that the city attorney and city engineer reviewed the proposal. Jensen said the amendment will allow the city to directly award smaller specialty contracts in some cases — for instance, when the city has a longstanding relationship with a contractor who has reliably performed excavations or other niche work — while staff would still solicit competitive bids for larger or more complex projects.
“I reviewed this with the city attorney and with our city engineer, and we felt like we ought to recommend that we take advantage of the state's threshold, which is $25,000,” Jensen told the council. Council discussion noted that costs have risen since the prior $10,000 threshold was established and that bidding at the higher threshold could save staff time without eliminating prudent competitive bidding when appropriate.
A council member moved to adopt the resolution and a second was recorded; the motion passed with unanimous vocal assent. The resolution is recorded in the city’s drive as “purchase resolution 5‑2025.” Councilmembers said the city will continue to obtain competitive bids on many projects and will use the higher threshold primarily to streamline procurement for specialty or time‑sensitive work.
The council did not provide an exact list of procurement categories that will be sole‑sourced under the new threshold; staff said projects will continue to be evaluated on a case‑by‑case basis and that the policy retains department head and mayoral approvals in the AP/payment workflow.
