The council unanimously approved a new procurement law Tuesday that substantially lowers the threshold amounts for purchases requiring secret competitive bids.
The new ordinance, written by City Attorney Jeff Turnage and supported by Mayor Stephen Jones, establishes a competitive bidding process for any public construction and non-professional services valued at least $1,000 and lowers the threshold to $3,000 for commodities, printing and contracts for rentals.
The only exception, Turnage said Tuesday, is for commodities that can be found online or through national vendors like Walmart or Lowe’s. In those cases, the department looking to purchase the commodity must submit printouts or digital proof of prices from at least two vendors.
If less than $75,000, vendors can submit their bid by sealed envelope or through a secure electronic bidding portal.
Under state law, contracts worth more than $75,000 require a sealed competitive bidding process, while purchases between $5,000 and $74,999 only require quotes that don’t have to be sealed or secret. Purchases less than $5,000 require no competitive process, but state law allows local governments to lower that threshold.
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene, who voiced reservations at the council’s Aug. 26 work session about complications the lower thresholds would cause contractors, moved Tuesday to approve the ordinance. His caveat, however, was that the council consider amending the ordinance if problems arise with the new process.
“We’ll see how this goes,” Greene told The Dispatch after the meeting. “I don’t know that there’s a downside. … When you get that low amount of money … it’s a hassle to go out and get two or three bids.”
For Greene, the online bidding option “solved a whole lot of the problems” he initially had with the ordinance.
“I’m OK seeing how this rolls and if it is a bigger deal than we need, then we can always go back and adjust it,” he said.
The new policy comes fast on the heels of former councilman Joseph Mickens’ indictment for money laundering and bid rigging, for which he was arrested Aug. 13.
Per Mickens’ indictment, the former councilman and vice mayor conspired with a local HVAC contractor to procure flooring work at city buildings in exchange for promises of helping the contractor obtain city-funded HVAC jobs in the future. As part of the alleged scheme, Mickens allegedly told the HVAC contractor to bid exactly $18,000 for a flooring job at Townsend Community Center.
In a letter published Tuesday in The Dispatch, Jones wrote the new purchasing law simply “codifies practices I have already been requiring” and is not a direct response to the Mickens indictment.
“The recent indictment does, however, illustrate why we should put these safeguards into law rather than rely upon informal practices,” the mayor wrote.
Other business
In other business, the council:
■ approved a $5,850 bid from Malone Electric for electrical work and a $12,500 bid from Patterson HVAC for HVAC work at the old Dial-A-Bus building; and
■ reappointed Marthalie Porter to a 5-year term on the Columbus Redevelopment Authority. Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.