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Weslaco workshop previews on-call rotation policy, proposes $275,000 task-order cap
Summary
City staff presented a draft on-call rotation and task-order pricing policy to streamline assignments for engineering, surveying and testing work and proposed capping individual professional-fee assignments at $275,000; commissioners asked for legal review and chose to delay adoption.
The Weslaco City Commission discussed a draft policy for on-call professional services at a Sept. 2 workshop that would create ranked rotation lists for engineering, surveying, appraisals and material-testing firms and cap individual task orders at $275,000.
Presenter Peter, who led the discussion, said the policy is intended to make assignments “fair, consistent, and transparent,” allowing small projects to move forward without issuing a full RFQ each time. “So each assignment is capped at $275,000 in professional fees,” he told the commission. Anything above that threshold would be required to go through a separate RFQ and come before the commission for approval.
Supporters on the dais said the cap would prevent large discrepancies in work awarded through the rotation. Mayor Gonzales said the limit is meant to protect both the commission and staff from questions about fairness and to keep projects from concentrating with a few firms. “We don't want to be reactive anymore,” the mayor said, urging a transparent, predictable process.
Commissioners asked how the cap would interact with existing RFQ terms and whether adding the cap after a solicitation could create legal problems. A staff member advising on procurement recommended that the commission review the original RFQ language for each rotation list to confirm what firms were solicited for and said exceptions for specialized services should be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Peter said rotation lists would be created through RFQs for the different disciplines, then staff would score, rank and present the selections to the commission. Engineering would manage the lists and assign work by rotating through ranked firms; the purchasing division would monitor compliance with procurement law and provide regular reports on how work is distributed.
The draft is a template, Peter said, and staff invited commissioners to redline the hard-copy policy. After discussion, the commission declined to adopt the policy at the workshop and directed staff to draft additional language, review the original RFQs where needed, and return a revised policy for formal consideration.
Next steps: staff will circulate a redlined draft reflecting the commission's feedback and return the item on a future meeting agenda. The workshop record shows the commission took no final action on the draft at this session.
