Contract approval procedures get an overhaul in Lewis County

Dec. 7—LOWVILLE — Lewis County legislators continued to streamline the way they do business with a resolution approved at Tuesday night's board meeting.

The procedural update will cut down on the number of times the body votes on the same action while stipulating reporting standards that will ensure they are still aware of the progress and have the opportunity to give feedback.

"A lot of this is about the resolutions and the motions (the board makes). It's about streamlining and really, it's about organization. We have too many late resolutions," County Manager Ryan M. Piche told the members of the Finance and Rules Committee last month after Clerk of the Board Cassandra E. Moser introduced the desired changes, "We just put too many things in front of you guys... (you) do more than 300 resolutions a year and dozens of motions. If we could just get that down a little bit then the things that do wind up on your lap could be a little bit more thorough."

The new rules give more authority to the chairman of the board, currently Lawrence L. Dolhof, R-Lyons Falls, to "execute all annual renewal agreements" that are forwarded by county departments if cost increases are less than 5% and the services are in the approved budget for the department.

Agreements or contracts forwarded by county departments for less than $25,000 no longer need board approval, although department heads will still need to follow the existing purchasing policies including presenting proposed contracts to the county manager before committee agendas are made every month.

Prior to 2021, the board would discuss every equipment purchase and service contract in detail — even if it was for a few thousand dollars — which took a significant amount of time from more weighty topics and often delayed the approval process when legislators had different ideas on various details.

Those lengthy debates precipitated the first change in approval procedures by setting a $5,000 threshold for board approval and led to the creation of the purchasing director position, especially as the multi-million capital project now underway to revamp and build new county buildings was ramping up.

Board approvals for requests for proposals (RFPs) to be sent out to the public and grant applications will also no longer be required under the new legislation, whereas in the past, the board had to approve motions to create, send out and approve these actions, creating months in lag time.

Department heads will now get pre-approval by the county manager and proceed through the purchasing director for RFPs and "preliminary review and conditional approval" for grant applications.

The county manager will provide lists of these actions with key details before they are submitted so any questions or concerns the lawmakers may have can be addressed.

The board will still approve any grant applications that require the approval as a requirement for submission.

Mr. Piche said he believed many of the pre-change processes were left over from a time when there was no county manager to manage the flow of work coming out of the departments so everything had to go through the board by necessity, but he doesn't have a sense that any board members are interested in going back to a time without a top administrator.

"I think it's more about moving some of these things to the appropriate level," said Mr. Piche. "We want to use the board's time wisely. It's about balance. What do they want to spend their time on as a governing board, working on homeless issues for the community or discussing a new RFP for a new Chevy Tahoe? We've only got these guys 24 times a year — 12 meetings and 12 committee meetings — so what do they want to use their time on? I think that's what it comes down to, really, and I think it's important."

Legislators will also receive monthly reports with the details of renewed contracts and agreements less than $25,000 that are being executed.