photo by: Nick Krug

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on May 3, 2016.

It now is significantly easier for Lawrence City Hall to buy all sorts of goods and services — some costing as much as $50,000 — without going through a bidding process.

City Hall leaders — and city commissioners — though, say the changes are good because it will make routine purchases more efficient and save on staff time.

“We do spend an awful lot of time and money doing a lot of paperwork based on an old policy,” said Bryan Kidney, the city’s finance director.

The purchasing procedures were last updated in 2011, but it had been a number of years since the purchasing limits outlined in the policy had been revised, according to the proposal. Commissioners this week approved about a dozen changes to the city’s purchasing policy.

Among the changes are:

• Bids, or requests for proposals, only will be required when it is expected the good or service will cost $50,000 or more. Previously, bidding generally was required for purchases greater than $15,000.

• City commissioners only will be asked to approve purchases if they are greater than $100,000. Previously, the City Commission approved all bids, and all purchases greater than $15,000.

• The city manager will approve all purchases greater than $25,000, but department heads will have the ability to make some purchases less than that without city manager approval.

• Change orders to contracts with city vendors only will need City Commission approval if they exceed $50,000. Currently all change orders greater than $15,000 require City Commission approval. Change orders frequently are characterized as unexpected expenses that arise during a construction project or other city project.

An expected outcome of the changes is that city commissioners will spend less time approving bids, and staff members who prepare the agendas for the commission will spend less time processing those agenda items.

Some of those changes mean the commission will be sent fewer purchase approvals. Going forward, commission approval will only be required on purchases more than $100,000. Previously, the commission had to approve any purchase more than $15,000. Kidney noted that purchase decisions would be the discretion of city department heads, and those more than $25,000 would require approval of the city manager.

That time can be significant, Kidney said. City staff determined that during the one-year period from July 2015 to June 2016, there were approximately 180 purchase items on the City Commission agenda. Of those, about 140 were under the $100,000 threshold.

Kidney said part of the thinking behind the changes is that he would rather use his accountants to focus on higher-dollar purchases.

“We want to make sure that we’re focused on things with bigger impact,” Kidney said.

Commissioner Stuart Boley said he thinks that increasing the thresholds for approvals in the purchasing policy doesn’t amount to less oversight. In addition to the annual financial audit, statistical sampling of all purchases will be done, he said. As a retired auditor with the Internal Revenue Service, Boley said he is content with the checks that are in place.

“I think that’s a legitimate way of doing things,” Boley said. “I was an auditor, and we used to do statistical sampling. I think it’s a thoughtful approach, and I think the tradeoff is how are we best using staff time.”

Boley also said the updates to the purchasing policy don’t exist in isolation, but rather are part of wider changes made to the city’s budgeting process. The new budget process is more comprehensive, providing more detailed budgets for all the city’s funds, including smaller funds that historically had not been detailed in the city’s budget documents.

“We’ve gained transparency with this 2017 budget, because we’re saying this is how we’re going to spend this money up front,” Boley said. “We don’t wait until the meeting comes along.”

The changes to the purchasing rules, the budget process and the creation of a new five-year capital improvement plan are all part of an effort to make the city and the commission operate more efficiently. As a result, Boley said more decisions now will be built into the budget process, as opposed to coming one by one to the commission.

“It’s better to have us budget the money and have it be done that way than to come for these ad hoc decisions,” Boley said. “I think that (the purchasing policy) is a change that fits in with this whole pattern of how can we make the operations of the finance department better.”

A summary of the changes to the purchasing policy is available on the city’s website.