Commissioners consider purchasing threshold after IT encumbrances placed on IT budget

The Greene County commission opened a procedural discussion about IT encumbrances after the chair complained that invoices from other departments had been routed through the IT office and charged to IT's budget.

The chair (S3) said some purchases routed to IT "were not, I don't think they were necessarily computers... they were more under the guise of probably, like, office supplies that they thought should come out of the IT budget," and urged the commission to address the practice sooner rather than waiting for the next budget cycle.

County attorney Morgan (introduced in the transcript as 'Morgan'; the record later also uses the name 'Marvin' in one place) told commissioners one option would be to establish a dollar threshold below which departmental purchases of an IT nature would be treated as office supplies and paid from the requesting department's budget. "One of the things you and I talked about is the possibility of establishing a policy threshold...below which if the office holder... wanted to purchase something of an IT nature, and it was below a certain dollar amount, then it's just office supplies," Morgan said, adding that such a threshold could be incorporated into a broader update of the county's purchasing ordinance.

Several commissioners expressed the view that if an item is not part of IT's replacement schedule, it should come out of the buying department's budget and not be charged to IT. The chair and county attorney agreed there was time to draft language and return with a proposal for the commission to consider. The meeting record does not show that the commission adopted any specific threshold; the matter was set for further consideration and for potential inclusion in the purchasing-ordinance update.

The commission adjourned after the discussion and routine approvals earlier in the meeting.