A. To ensure the city's compliance with budget restrictions, and the availability of funds for essential services, purchasing procedures exist which require that all purchases for service and commodities and/or goods must be initiated by a purchase order and handled via the purchase order process with the exception of petty cash purchases, and specialized contract services set out in § 3-5-25 below.
B. The amount of cost analysis and procedural formality required by these policies varies with the specifics of each transaction, including the amount of money, the type of goods and services, the availability of competing vendors, and the urgency of the matter for which goods and/or services are sought.
C. In making a purchase, city staff and/or officials should ensure compliance with the procedures with respect to all of the following aspects:
1. Who has the authority to make the purchasing decision;
2. How to obtain complete and competitive information about the availability of and the pricing for products and services;
3. How to communicate to potential vendors;
4. How to receive communications from vendors as to their prices and services in order to obtain the information in a form which will provide useful comparative information;
5. Which vendors are authorized vendors; and
6. How to ensure the city has the funds available in its budget for the purchase, and that those funds are set aside between the time the products and/or services are ordered and the time it is received and paid.
(Res. 2008-011, passed 2-19-2008)