City Council Discusses Pre-approval for Purchases

BONNERS FERRY — City Council met on Jan. 19 with all council members present, Rick Alonzo, Ron Smith, Adam Arthur and Valerie Thompson, as well as Mayor Richard Staples.

City Administrator Lisa Ailport put forth a proposal to change contract authorization policies and purchases of goods and services. As of now, these items are brought to council for discussion and mayoral signature.

The new policy would authorize staff to enter contracts with pre-approved spending limits or sideboards, and purchase goods and services without approval from council. Many of these items have already been budgeted but still require approval before purchasing in an effort to provide oversight on all spending. According to Ailport, some services are necessary and immediate and the current policy acts as an impediment.

Also included for pre-approval would be contractual work that is put out for bid. Idaho state procurement process states any purchase under $50,000 is discretionary and cities can guide conduct of these contracts internally.

Councilmember Valerie Thompson expressed concern about whether large purchases and/or contracts would still come before the Council to decide if they are essential to the city.

The stated goal is to reduce redundancy, find a balance between efficiency and oversight and make Council meetings more productive and concise.

Ailport provided examples of other Idaho cities that have implemented similar policies, specifically citing McCall as a good guideline for the process if Council chose to move forward. McCall has a population of around 3,000 and took about a year to draft their new 44 page policy.

The Council agreed that Ailport should move forward with assigning a committee and creating a draft of the new policy to be presented at a future meeting.

The Council also discussed the difficulty in filling the visitors center cleaning position. Currently, the position requires someone to clean the center twice a day, seven days a week. They approved breaking up the hours into two positions to try and generate more interest in the job.