Goods and services which are not required by
law to be procured pursuant to competitive bidding must be procured
in a manner so as to assure the prudent and economical use of public
moneys in the best interests of the taxpayers, to facilitate the acquisition
of goods and services of maximum quality at the lowest possible cost
under the circumstances and to guard against favoritism, improvidence,
extravagance, fraud and corruption. To further these objectives, the
governing Board is adopting internal policies and procedures governing
all procurement of goods and services which are not required to be
made pursuant to the competitive bidding requirements of General Municipal
Law § 103, or of any other general, special or local law.
The procedures for determining whether a procurement
of goods and services is subject to competitive bidding and documenting
the basis for any determination that competitive bidding is not required
by law is as follows:
A. Procedure.
(1) Purchase contract for supplies and/or equipment in
excess of $20,000.
(2) Contract for public works in excess of $35,000.
B. Documentation: written quotations or proposals.
Except for procurement made pursuant to General
Municipal Law § 103, Subdivision 3 (through county contracts),
or § 104 (through state contracts), State Finance Law § 175-b (from agencies for the blind or other severely handicapped, special employment programs for the mentally ill or veterans' workshops), Correction Law § 186 (articles manufactured in correctional institutions) or the items excepted herein (See §
41-7.), alternative proposals or quotations for goods and services shall be secured by use of written requests for proposals, written quotations, verbal quotations or any other method of procurement which furthers the purposes of General Municipal Law § 104-b.
The methods of procurement to be used are as
follows:
E. Secondhand equipment from other governments.
Documentation of actions taken in connection
with each such method of procurement is required as follows:
A. For contracts involving supplies or equipment in excess
of $3,000 but less than $20,000 and for contracts for public works
in excess of $10,000 but less than $35,000, there shall be a written
specification request and written quotes from three vendors.
B. For contracts for public works in excess of $3,000
but less than $10,000, there shall be an oral or written specification
request and written quotes from two vendors.
C. For contracts for supplies and equipment and for contracts
for public works in excess of $1,000 but less than $3,000, there shall
be an oral specification request and oral or written quotes from two
vendors.
D. For contracts for supplies and equipment and contracts
for public works less than $1,000, the contract may be awarded at
the discretion of the entity making the purchase.
E. All quotes
are to be documented, in writing, by the department head or the designee
making the request.
F. If the department
head or designee has a failure in meeting guidelines set forth above,
then the department head or designee is required to document, in writing,
reasons for failure in process (i.e., low reply rate, etc.).
Whenever any contract is awarded to other than
the lowest responsible dollar offerer, the reasons such an award furthers
the purpose of General Municipal Law § 104-b as set forth
hereinabove shall be documented as follows:
A. There must be documentation and justification of the
reason why the purchase is in the best interest of the governmental
unit.
The Board sets forth the following circumstances
when or types of procurement for which, in the sole discretion of
the governing body, the solicitation of alternative proposals or quotations
will not be in the best interest of the Town of Shandaken.
C. Small procurement under $1,000.
Comments concerning the policies and procedures
shall be solicited from officers of the political subdivision or district
therein involved in the procurement process prior to the enactment
of policies and procedures, and will be solicited from time to time
hereafter.
The governing Board shall annually review these
policies and procedures. The Supervisor shall be responsible for conducting
an annual review of the procurement policy and for an evaluation of
the internal control structure established to ensure compliance with
the procurement policy.
The unintentional failure to fully comply with
the provisions of General Municipal Law § 104-b shall not
be grounds to void action taken or give rise to a cause of action
against the Town of Shandaken or any officer or employee thereof.