Florissant officials explain Propositions 2 and 3, say changes would move purchasing rules from charter to ordinance

Mayor Tim Lowry and Sam Johnson, the city’s finance director, used a City of Florissant podcast episode to explain Propositions 2 and 3, two charter amendments on the April 7 ballot that would move detailed purchasing rules out of the charter and allow the city to set them by ordinance.

Sam Johnson said the measures address different parts of the charter: “Proposition 2 addresses some purchasing procedures in Article 6,” and “Proposition 3 deals with Article 9 in the Charter, and deals with public improvement.” He explained that, under the current charter, “If we buy anything over $5,000, it requires a sealed bid,” a formal process he described as time-consuming for staff and prospective bidders.

Johnson said the city’s $5,000 sealed-bid threshold dates to the charter’s last amendment in 1980 and is unusually low compared with neighboring jurisdictions. He listed examples: City of Saint Charles ($50,000), Hazelwood ($35,000), and several municipalities and counties at $25,000. Johnson said the proposals would remove that specific dollar trigger from the charter so thresholds and procedures can be updated by ordinance instead of requiring another public vote.

Explaining the financial impact, Johnson estimated that increasing the formal threshold and moving procedures to ordinance could save the city “north of $70,000 a year” by reducing staff time spent preparing requisitions and managing sealed bids. He added that higher thresholds would reduce upfront burdens on contractors — bid bonds and lengthy submissions — and could increase competition for smaller projects.

Johnson also said the proposed charter edits include budget-language changes to align the charter with state law on use of unencumbered reserves and to clarify when small departmental budget amendments can be approved by the mayor versus when council approval is required. He characterized Article 9’s current public-improvement procedures as potentially “onerous” and said moving them to ordinance would allow the city to update rules in response to inflation or state-law changes.

Mayor Tim Lowry and Johnson emphasized that the propositions are independent: if one measure passes and the other does not, the surviving article continues to govern its respective subject. Johnson invited listeners with questions to contact him at sjohnson@floristatmo.com or by calling City Hall during business hours.

The podcast concluded with the mayor’s closing remarks and the city tagline.