Friday, August 1, 2003

Fairburn adopts purchasing manual

By LINDSAY BIANCHI
Special to The Citizen

"Quality service. Responsible spending"

That's the mission statement of Fairburn's Purchasing Department in a nutshell. The City Council had two weeks to look over the 20 page document first presented to the group by City Administrator Jim Williams at their July 14 meeting.

At that time, council member Marian Johnson made the motion to table the proposal until Monday's meeting in order to give the City Council time to absorb all the new information in the packet.

In the interim, City Attorney Brad Sears fine-tuned the wording of some sections and a clear and concise purchasing manual was adopted Monday night.

In order to assure the public's "confidence in the integrity of its government" a code of ethics stressing fairness and impartiality set down eight specific goals for the Purchasing Department.

Among the ideals stressed were efficient service to the public, enhancement of the city's reputation and employees, an equal and courteous treatment of all its citizens and a desire to refrain from special privilege.

The obtaining of quotes is separated into verbal, written and sealed bids. Two to three verbal quotes are required for bids under $500 and $5,000 respectively.

Three written quotes are required for amounts over $5,000. Formal sealed bids are used when the amount is over the $10,000 mark. It was also noted that sales tax, freight and set-up costs would be included in the quotes.

In the instance that a sealed bid is required, a bid package is distributed to all potential candidates. Bids between $10,000 and $99,000 have a period of 15 days from the established bid opening date to submit a proposal. Twenty days are given for bids over $100,000 and less than $250,000. Larger amounts will receive a 30 day preparation period.