Purchasing/Personal Use of City Vehicles

The following items aren’t necessarily newsworthy but may be of interest to our residents.

City Purchasing Procedures – We often get inquiries from local businesses with respect to the City having a ‘shop local’ policy when we acquire goods and services. The City has a Purchasing Policy that requires that we utilize a range of competitive purchasing procedures, depending on the value of the goods or services being purchased. These generally involve obtaining a minimum of three quotes/bids but may involve issuing a tender or Request for Proposals (RFP) for larger value purchases. The City strives to obtain quotes from local businesses where the goods or services are available locally but we may go out of town for more specialized items. When projects or services are tendered or go to RFP, there are no provisions to exclude out of town bidders. The primary objective when the City makes purchases is to receive the best product at the most competitive price.

Personal Use of City Vehicles – The City receives the occasional complaint that a City staff member was observed driving a City vehicle on the weekend or evening with family members in the vehicle or doing personal errands. There are designated employees within the City that are required to be on ‘after hours standby’ to respond to incidents, emergencies or infrastructure malfunctions. These employees are from the Public Works Division and Fire Department and in order to be able to respond to a call on a moment’s notice with the appropriate equipment, they must have their City vehicles with them at all times. With the exception of these designated employees, City vehicles are not permitted to be used for personal use or transporting the general public.