Pendergrass City work session advances revisions to purchasing policy, stresses disclosure and notification

Pendergrass City council members and staff reviewed a draft revision of the city purchasing policy at a Feb. 11, 2025 work session, focusing on dollar thresholds for quotes, conflict-of-interest disclosure, local vendor preference and change-order limits.

The policy presenter (recorded as Speaker 5) told the council the draft replaces references to 'mayor' with 'mayor/city manager' so a future city manager can act under the policy. Speaker 5 said the draft redefines the "dollar threshold" to count total spending with a single vendor for similar goods or services within a fiscal year, to prevent repeated small purchases from circumventing review limits. "That way they know that it's if they're gonna buy the same thing over and over again, it's technically a split purchase," Speaker 5 said.

On procurement thresholds, Speaker 5 described the proposed structure: one informal quote for purchases below $2,500 and three informal quotes for purchases from $2,500 up to $10,000, with council approval required for higher amounts (the draft and discussion repeatedly referenced a $25,000 council-approval threshold). Council members pressed for a notification process for mid-range purchases so they would not be blindsided. "Just inform — anything within... I think anything that's a big thing from 10,000 to 24,000... the city council should be informed," Speaker 5 said, proposing an informational email when staff collects quotes.

The draft adds written conflict-of-interest rules. Speaker 5 said disclosures must be written and attached to any formal quote or bid and submitted to the mayor or city manager; the charter requires separate agenda placement for mayor or council disclosures. "It looks different for each of them according to the charter," Speaker 5 said, and noted the draft adopts the personnel policy's definition of "immediate family."

Change orders and approvals were also discussed. Speaker 5 described a draft scale in which small change orders could be approved by department heads, larger change orders would require mayoral approval, and still larger ones would need council review. Examples discussed in the session ranged from departmental authority for small amounts (example given: about $200) to mayoral approval above roughly $500 and council approval above about $5,000, and council members urged limiting the number of small change orders so thresholds are not circumvented.

The draft reinstates a local-vendor preference: a business located in the city or within 20 miles of city limits would qualify. Speaker 5 said the preference percentages proposed were 10% for purchases under $10,000 and 5% for purchases over $10,000, with an opportunity-to-match procedure for local vendors who are not within the preference percentage.

On insufficient responses to solicitations, Speaker 5 proposed that if staff contacts five vendors and receives fewer than three responses, the outreach attempts would count toward the quote requirement, giving staff flexibility when vendors do not respond.

No final vote was taken on the purchasing policy during the work session. Speaker 5 said they will revise the draft and email it to council members for review; the council discussed voting at a future work session or at an upcoming regular meeting. "If it's all done by next week... we can vote on it," Speaker 5 said, and Speaker 2 said the goal is to approve the policy by year-end or in January.

Next steps: staff will circulate an edited draft for council review; the council requested clearer notification language for purchases near the council-approval threshold and limits on repeated change orders. The item will return for a future meeting with the revised language for formal action.