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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION – OCTOBER 19, 2020 6 Finance Director Bauman said this is a total rewrite of the Purchasing Policy for the City. It is hard to identify all of the changes being requested, but the major ones are: • Include information on Cooperative Purchasing (Attachment B page 6). • Include information on Environmental Purchasing (Attachment B page 7). • Include policy on Electronic Funds Transfers (Attachment B page 9). • Request increasing the $7,500 amount throughout the policy with $10,000 (highlighted in yellow throughout Attachment B). • Request replacing the reference tables on pages 3 and 11 highlighted in yellow, with the new tables written in red. Staff is requesting feedback on the proposed changes prior to bringing a new Purchasing Policy to a future Council meeting for approval. Councilmember Holmes asked if the increases to $10,000 were in the State policy or that was at the City’s discretion. Finance Director Bauman said it was a City discretion and that she had reviewed other city’s policies and $10,000 was a common amount. Councilmember Holmes wondered about the section that says Reimbursement to Employees, No Quotations Necessary. Finance Director Bauman responded that was where there was a mileage reimbursement or had to use their own credit card to make a purchase and needed to submit an expense report for something they paid for out of their own pocket. Councilmember Holmes asked if they should have in the policy that even when they go with the lowest bid we have also checked on the quality of work and felt the lowest bid was the best they could have. Councilmember Scott suggested using language saying the best value bid would be accepted. Councilmember Holmes said if they go with a bid that isn’t the lowest they get an explanation from staff, but if they go with the lowest bid there isn’t an explanation. Mayor Grant said he’s noticed they’ve been told it would be the lowest responsible bidder or qualified bidder because they were scored. Discussion continued regarding responsible and qualified bidders. Councilmember Holden commented that she is open to raising the purchasing limit to $10,000. She said she’d like to get more than two quotes for $175,000 bids. Mayor Grant felt 3 would be a good minimum for $25,000 - $174, 999. After discussion it was decided to change the chart to say two or more quotes for $10,000 – $49,999, and three or more quotes for $50,000 - $174,999.