BERRYVILLE — With a few exceptions, Clarke County employees now will be allowed to bid on surplus equipment that the county auctions.
That’s part of amendments made to the county’s Procurement Policies and Procedures and which became effective on Tuesday. Both the Clarke County Board of Supervisors and the Clarke County School Board recently approved the amendments.
The rules previously stipulated that no employees or immediately family members could participate in a surplus auction or receive goods from someone who does.
Employees now will generally be allowed to submit bids. However, two restrictions will apply.
One is that employees of the county’s purchasing department itself won’t be allowed to submit bids.
The other restriction is that an employee of a department that declared an item to be surplus won’t be able to bid on that particular item unless he or she receives permission in advance from the county purchasing agent, county administrator of the county’s superintendent of schools.
Nevertheless, when a department wants to get rid of something, it first must be offered to other county departments and the schools. If somebody else doesn’t want the item, then it can be put to bid at either an on-site or online auction, the policy shows.
“It could result in additional competitive bidding and revenue,” Bennett said.
This policy hasn’t changed: Any items not sold at auction will be offered to employees through a sealed bid process. The employee who submits the highest bid will receive the item. If two employees submit the same bid, the earliest bidder will get the item.
The amendments are the first made to the procurement policies since 2010. Some result from changes in state code. Others, in which specific dollar values mentioned have been increased, take into account inflation during the past decade, according to Bennett.
For instance, “small-dollar purchases” of $1,000 or less now can be handled by the purchasing department or an account manager upon one fair and reasonable price being determined. That amount is up from $800. Purchases totaling between $1,000.01 and $35,000 must occur through unsealed competitive bidding, the revised policy shows.
The maximum amount in the latter case was raised from $25,000 to $35,000. Still, the higher figure is “kind of low” for a specialized vehicle — a patrol car for the sheriff’s office is an example — in today’s market, Bennett commented.
When procuring an item or nonprofessional service anticipated to cost more than $35,000, an “invitation for bids” can be issued if “the item/service can be clearly defined in a set of specifications and pricing is the only criteria,” the policy reads. Otherwise, a more formal “request for proposals” (RFP) must be issued.
An RFP also can be issued if the county wants vendors to provide suggestions or pricing for a product or service intended to achieve a certain end result, the policy states. A hypothetical example it mentions is the purchase of a security camera for a school. Using their knowledge and expertise, individual vendors can put forth various proposals useful in determining the best option for the school division.
The specified increased dollar amounts make the county “more competitive and more realistic in the market,” said David Weiss, the supervisors’ chairman and Buckmarsh District representative.
Despite the increases, “we have much lower thresholds than anyone else in the area,” Weiss added to his understanding, referring to other localities. That includes Berryville, he said.
After hearing from Bennett about the changes, School Board members didn’t comment before approving them.