City's Purchasing policies gain questions from Councillor Cunningham

How the city approaches its Request for Bids for services and goods made for a topic at the August 20th City Council session, with Councillor Barry Cunningham raising a number of questions with the City's Financial Officer Corinne Bomben.

The main thrust of his inquiries was whether the city approached its purchasing strategy by way of lowest price, or if it involves other factors for consideration prior to selection of the successful bids.

In response, the City's CFO outlined that cost and other qualitative factors were considered, including capabilities and letters of reference among the factors used.

Mr. Cunningham followed up with one final question on the theme, asking if local businesses were given preference if they are within a certain percentage of the lowest bid.

He was advised that it was not currently the city's policy.

You can explore the discussion further from the City's Video Archive, starting at the fifty four minute mark.





For more items of interest from the August 20th Council session see our Council Timeline feature here, or our archive of Notes from the session here.

A look at some of the past Request for Bids and final decisions on purchasing and service calls can be found from our archive page here.

A wider overview of City Council discussion topics can be found from our Council Discussion page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review