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Council asks staff for justification before raising city purchasing thresholds
Summary
Council members delayed approval of updated purchasing guidelines that would raise approval thresholds to improve ERP efficiency and cited the need for documentation showing how new threshold numbers were chosen and adjusted for inflation.
City finance staff and consultants presented revised purchasing guidelines on Tuesday that would raise approval thresholds at several levels to streamline approvals in a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Council members asked staff to return with documentation explaining how the proposed threshold figures were chosen and how they relate to inflation and comparators.
Budget Manager Rick Kirkwood and Accounting Manager Lorena Zarata told council the update was driven by a two‑year review, federal and state regulations and the need to reduce staff workload caused by inflation-driven increases in routine purchase costs. The proposed thresholds would, for example, increase some department director approval limits so smaller-dollar contracts would not require time‑consuming solicitation of three written quotes.
Several council members expressed concern that higher thresholds could reduce oversight of taxpayer funds amid an existing budget deficit and requested information about when thresholds were last updated, comparative benchmarks from neighboring jurisdictions and the method used to select the new numbers.
Councilmember Aguilera Hernandez moved and Councilmember Flores seconded a request that staff return to the next meeting with documentation explaining the rationale for the specific threshold increases; the motion passed on a roll call (Aguilera Hernandez Aye; Flores Aye; Mayor Puerto Escobedo Aye; Mayor Patino Aye). Council did not adopt the new guidelines on June 17.
