By Katie Northcott, News Director
At its inaugural meeting on Thursday, Feb. 19, the Manchester Policies and Procedures Committee discussed a purchasing threshold increase.
The increase would allow department directors, the mayor, and the Finance Committee to spend higher amounts of money without approval from the Manchester Board of Mayor and Alderman (BOMA).
Currently, department heads may approve purchases of up to $1,499, the mayor may approve purchases of $1,500 to $9,999, and the Finance Committee may approve purchases of $10,000 to $34,999.
The threshold increase would allow department heads to approve purchases of up to $9,999, the mayor to approve purchases of $10,000 to $34,999, and the Finance Committee to approve purchases of $35,000 to $49,999. Purchases of $50,000 or more and purchases not included in the city’s budget would still come before the BOMA for approval.
The increase, which was originally proposed by Anthony Burrows, the city’s Finance Director, passed 2-0-0-1 at the Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 17. Vice Mayor Mark Messick and Alderman Thomas Crosslin were in favor while Alderman Donny Parsley was absent.
Burrows said that the original thresholds were set “a long time ago” and needed to be adjusted to account for inflation and to bring more efficiency to city operations. City Attorney Craig Johnson said that the adjustment would be within the Tennessee State Code’s stipulations.
At the Finance Committee meeting, Burrows said that the item would go before the Policies and Procedures Committee. At the Policies and Procedures meeting, Crosslin said he assumed it would go before the BOMA without a vote from the committee since it had already passed in the Finance Committee. Johnson said he had seen the item on the agenda for the BOMA meeting scheduled for March 3.
