Pendergrass acting mayor opened the Feb. 11 work session and the council spent the bulk of the meeting reviewing a draft revision to the city's purchasing policy.

Council member (Speaker 3), who presented the draft, said one change rewords references to 'mayor' to 'mayor/city manager' so a future city manager can act under the policy without returning the document for another revision. "That way, if we do hire a city manager, they can act in that capacity, and we won't have to...come back and look at this again," the presenter said.

The draft adds an aggregated definition of the dollar threshold so repeated purchases from the same vendor for the same or similar items within a fiscal year count toward procurement thresholds. As Speaker 3 explained, the change is intended to prevent repeated small purchases that would otherwise circumvent competitive requirements.

The council debated informal-quote categories. The presenter described the new structure as: one informal quote for purchases from $250 to $2,500 and three informal quotes for purchases from $2,500 to $10,000. The council's formal approval threshold would remain $25,000.

On conflict-of-interest language, the draft requires written disclosure of direct or indirect financial interests "at the time of the formal quote being submitted," to be attached to bids or quotes and submitted to the mayor or city manager. The presenter said the definition of "immediate family member" in the draft follows the city's personnel policy.

Members expressed concern about being "blindsided" if a purchase approaches the $25,000 threshold because of added change orders or taxes. To address that, Speaker 3 proposed, and members supported, a nonapproval notification: the department would CC council members an email showing the quote, vendor and budget source for purchases in the $10,000–$25,000 range for informational purposes.

The draft also creates a local vendor preference: businesses with a valid city business license or located within 20 miles of city limits could be favored within set percentage margins — Speaker 3 described 10% for procurements under $10,000 and 5% for procurements over $10,000 — and local vendors outside the margin would be given an opportunity to match the lowest price.

Council members discussed change-order controls to limit cumulative use of small change orders to circumvent procurement thresholds. The draft includes a tiered approval approach discussed as department head approval for small change orders, mayor approval at mid levels, and council approval for larger changes; draft numeric examples mentioned by council members included amounts such as $200, $500 and $5,000 as internal control points for discussion.

Speaker 3 also proposed that if the city solicits five vendors and receives fewer than three quotes, the outreach attempts may count toward the quote requirement to prevent indefinite delays when vendors do not respond.

No final vote on the purchasing policy was taken at the session. Speaker 3 said he would email an updated draft with edits and the council agreed to continue work with a goal of approval by the end of the year or in January. "If we can get it done by Tuesday, then great; if not, it will be rushed," Speaker 3 said.

Next steps: council members will receive the revised draft by email and reconsider the policy at a future work session before formally voting.