Finance committee flags procurement manual issues, urges clearer reporting for sole-source and exempt purchases

Town attorney Jeff Curts told the Finance Advisory Committee that the procurement ordinance takes precedence over the administrative purchasing manual and pointed to at least one drafting error in the manual's contracts section that could be misread to require a payment and performance bond for every contract.

Committee members focused on purchasing thresholds and accountability. Members described the current dollar-threshold approach: department heads have discretion for purchases up to $1,000; $1,000.01 to $5,000 generally requires multiple quotes; $5,000.01 to $24,900 requires formal written quotes; and amounts over $25,000 go to a competitive selection process. They asked for a mechanism to identify when purchases are handled as sole-source or exempt and to require written justification in the financial system.

Finance staff said quarterly vendor reports list expenditures above $10,000 and $25,000, but the system (referred to in the record as Blackbaud) does not currently flag sole-source or exempt transactions. Committee members recommended adding searchable categories or tags in the accounting system so council members and auditors can track whether expenditures were exempted from competition and why.

The committee asked staff to draft recommended language changes and to return with a focused update at a future meeting; no ordinance changes were enacted at this session.