Tift County considers raising public-works bid threshold to $250,000; staff asked to survey peers

TIFT COUNTY — The Tift County Board of Commissioners discussed proposed changes to the county purchasing policy at a Jan. 6 work session, including a proposal to raise the mandatory public-works bidding threshold to $250,000.

County Manager Jim Carter described Resolution No. 2026-02, which seeks to align the county’s threshold with state law and to authorize the County Manager, Assistant County Manager and Chief Financial Officer to procure and pay for non-budgeted goods and services up to an amount to be set by the board. "This resolution seeks to increase the threshold for mandatorily bidding public works construction projects to $250,000 to reflect State law," Carter said. Commissioners briefly discussed what the delegated spending limit should be and directed staff to contact other counties to learn their limits.

The board placed the resolution on the Jan. 12 regular agenda for further consideration. If approved at the regular meeting, the change would modify procurement practice and delegate limited authority to senior county officials; any policy change would be subject to the county's adopted purchasing policy and applicable state rules.

Why this matters: raising the bidding threshold changes how the county procures construction work and can speed some smaller projects' procurement, but it reduces the number of projects that require formal bidding and may prompt questions about oversight and transparency.

Next steps: staff will report back with comparative policies from peer counties and present the resolution for board action on Jan. 12.