VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING MINUTES
Monday, June 20, 2022
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Village Board meeting was conducted live remotely
via telecommunications.
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Gaffino called the meeting to order.
ROLL CALL
In attendance: Mayor Mark Gaffino, Trustee Mark Carroll, Trustee Laura Curtis, Trustee Mark Guethle, Trustee Mike Lowery, Trustee Todd Niedzwiedz, Trustee Carolyn Salazar
Staff in attendance: Village Administrator Steve Bosco, Finance Director Jason Paprocki, Community & Economic Development Director Mike Toth, Village Attorney Kevin Drendel, Police Chief Dave Fisher.
AUDIENCE COMMENTS – See below
TRUSTEE COMMENTS – None
DISCUSSION
1. Revision to Purchasing Policy
Administrator Bosco stated that the Village’s purchasing policy and potential changes to it were spoken about at the Committee of the Whole meeting on June 6, 2022. During that discussion, the Village Board had questions regarding the policy and the proposed changes. Staff decided to create a presentation to clarify the proposed changes and give a general overview of the policy in general.
Director Paprocki began the presentation with a recap of the reasons why the changes were proposed. The newspaper advertisement requirements of the bid process had prompted staff to initiate a review of the entirety of the purchasing policy resulting in potential changes to bid notices, spending authority, services and contracts, bid process and defining p-card limits.
Paprocki stated that currently the Village is required to post bid notices by newspaper, however this is not required by state law. The suggested change would to require the bid notices to be posted on the Village’s website as well as secondary methods.
Paprocki reviewed the Village’s examples of Professional Services which generally include a high degree of skill to perform (such as engineer, attorney, architect, inspector or appraiser). They could also provide services for the ongoing maintenance of Village facilities (pest control, alarm/access systems), or equipment services (HVAC, servers, phone systems, wells), provide software support (Springbrook, City View, DACRA), or provision of services to the community (for instances of water main break repair, power failure repairs).
Paprocki stated that services may result from a Request for Proposal, Request for Quote or a satisfactory relationship with a particular provider. This may or may not result in a contract, the professional service providers may be used as needed.
Paprocki went on to speak about Service Contracts. He stated that an additional potential change to the policy was that all individual and multi-year contracts with a total value above the spending authority will require approval of the Village Board. Currently, the Village Administrator can determine if a multi-year contract needs Board approval when the annual amount is within the spending authority. Another proposed addition is that each year staff will provide the Board with a list of ongoing professional service providers the Village is utilizing where the total annual amount is expected to exceed the Administrator’s spending authority.
Paprocki explained the reasoning behind raising the Administrator’s spending authority from $15,000 to $25,000, stating that it would fall in line with the current state statute as well as some other surrounding municipalities. He also mentioned that costs are rising and a higher limit would allow for the Village to be better prepared for unexpected expenses, emergencies or equipment failures.
There was discussion in regard to the flow of process of contracting with a Professional Service provider as well as a breakdown of the spending authority of Village Department Heads.
The final changes to the policy were shifting responsibilities for review of the bid package to the Finance Director from the Village Administrator as well as clarifying purchasing card limits for Department Heads ($10,000) and other supervisors ($5,000).
The Village Board were in favor of the proposed changes.
EXECUTIVE SESSION – None
ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn made by Trustee Salazar and seconded by Trustee Guethle. All in favor. Motion approved.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jessi Watkins
Village Clerk
