Policies
The Procurement & Contract Compliance Department conducts its purchasing process in a competitive, open and fair manner, environment. In order to safeguard this principle, everyone (suppliers, city administration, mayor, commissioners, lobbyist, etc.) involved within the procurement process are required to abide by the policies and procedures adopted by the City.
All of the policies are listed herein this website to provide direction to all of the procurement process, as well as, the procedures describing the specific actions to be taken to conform with established general policies, and allow for the orderly implementation of these policies.
Purchases $2,000 - $50,000:
Departments/Divisions must obtain a minimum of (3) written quotes and award on the lowest and/or most advantageous to meet the needs of the Unified Government (UG).
Written quotations shall be solicited from a minimum of (3) vendors. At least one local (LBE) and one minority business enterprise or/women-owned business enterprise (MBW/WBE) will be solicited for each bid.
Purchases $50,000+:
The UG shall publicly advertise and solicit through sealed bids.
- Competitive Sealed Bidding (BID): This method is used when the nature of the purchase permits award to the lowest acceptable bidder.
- Competitive Sealed Proposal (RFP): This method permits discussions with competing offerors and it allows comparative judgmental evaluations to be made when selecting among acceptable proposals. Typically this method is used for the purchase of services.
Formal Bid and Request for Proposal (RFP) advertisements are published in The Echo. Vendors who complete the UG vendor registration form are mailed direct solicitations for the commodities and services they are registered for.
The Unified Government does utilize a procurement card program and encourages departments to use Visa before producing purchase orders. Payment is convenient and fast.