WINNSBORO – County Council gave the final approval at their July 14 meeting to revised guidelines governing how the County makes purchases. Council had tabled a final vote on the revisions at their June 23 meeting at the request of Councilwoman Carolyn Robinson. Monday night, those changes sailed through Council without descent.
Changes to the policy include requiring Council’s approval for purchases over $25,000, as well as the definition of “close family” members related to County employees. Those members are defined as “spouse, sibling, in-laws, uncle/aunt, or cousin,” and are used to determine conflicts of interest in awarding contracts or purchases in the new manual. The previous policy placed no threshold for Council approval, provided the purchase was a budgeted item, leaving purchases at the discretion of the Procurement Director and the County Administrator, and contained no definitions of family members.
The proposed policy gives the Director of Procurement authority to make purchases up to $15,000. Change orders less than 10 percent of the original contract price, or in the amount of $10,000 must be approved by the Administrator under the new guidelines. Change orders greater than 10 percent or more than $10,000 require Council’s approval.
The revised policy manual in its draft form can be viewed in its entirety on the County’s website, www.fairfieldsc.com.
Council also authorized County Administrator Milton Pope to negotiate a price with Meade & Hunt for the upfitting of the HON Building on Highway 321 N. near Midlands Tech. The HON Building will serve as temporary home to the Fairfield County Courthouse while renovations are under way there.
Those renovations will be headed up by Davis & Floyd, whom Council approved Monday night as project managers for the renovations, at a cost of $104,000. That money will come out of the County’s 2013 bond issue of $24.06 million, Pope said.
