City attorney urges temporary spending limits and procurement-policy fixes

The city attorney advised Mabtoncouncilors to use a two-step approach: pass an interim resolution setting short-term spending limits and direct staff to update or adopt a procurement policy that would define signing authority, bidding rules and emergency exceptions.

Attorney Drew (S8) told councilors that a procurement policy is typically required by the state auditor and is an important internal-control tool. He explained the tradeoffs of delegating spending authority and cautioned that a sweeping "freeze" that cuts all delegated spending to zero would likely force frequent special public meetings because state law requires open public action on many types of expenditure. "A procurement policy is a great internal control tool for you guys to say, 'These are our rules and policies around expenditures,'" Drew said.

Council members discussed setting modest per-purchase limits (examples ranged from $300 to $500) with emergency carve-outs for urgent repairs. Drew offered to review any existing policy, provide templates, and draft an interim resolution while staff checks current procurement thresholds and state-auditor expectations.