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Item No. 9 <br />Type of Business: WK <br />WK: Work Session; PH: Public Hearing; <br />CA: Consent Agenda; CB: Council Business City of Mounds View Staff Report <br />To: Honorable Mayor and City Council <br />From: Charles Hansen, Finance Director <br />Item Title/Subject: Purchasing Policy <br />Date of Report: January 10, 2002 <br /> <br />Attached are the City of Mounds View’s current purchasing policy and policies from four <br />other cities. At the end is a research memo from the League of Minnesota Cities. <br /> <br />These policies range from the brief (one page) to very lengthy. It is possible to have a <br />very brief policy narrowly focused on purchasing, or a long policy with a wide focus. <br /> <br />A purchasing policy is a means of carrying out the City Council’s policies and directions. <br />It should be detailed enough to achieve the City Council’s goals, but not so <br />cumbersome that it unreasonably slows work or deters vendors from bidding on city <br />work. <br /> <br />I have begun to draft a new purchasing policy (also attached). Provisions can easily be <br />added, deleted, or modified according to the City Council’s input. In some cases I have <br />just referenced sections in the other city’s policies that I though could be a good model <br />for Mounds View’s policy. <br /> <br />Another consideration is to ensure that the purchasing policy is consistent with state <br />laws and the City Charter. Any local policy will presumably be made consistent with <br />state law at the time of writing. But over time, state laws are changed. Depending on <br />the nature of the change, the state law may supercede the local policy, or it may be <br />permissible for a local policy to be more restrictive than state law. Either way, the <br />inconsistencies will add confusion. <br /> <br />The City Code, Chapter 202 on Public Improvements is an example. It was written <br />when state law required sealed bids for contracts in excess of $25,000. State law has <br />been changed to raise this threshold to $50,000, but Chapter 202 remains at $25,000. <br />The danger to the City is that the best contractors may just not bother to submit a bid <br />when the City advertises for sealed bids on projects between $25,000 and $50,000. <br /> <br />Consideration should be given to simply referencing the state law verses benefits that <br />may be achieved by writing the same provisions into local policies. <br /> <br />Respectfully Submitted, <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Charles Hansen