Council to review purchasing ordinance

By Megan Kelley

Special to the Leader

During its meeting on July 11, the Oxford Village Council approved a bid award to Birmingham Sealcoat, Inc. in the amount of $247,816.30 for the village office’s north east parking lot rehabilitation project.

The village received five bids for the project, which includes major resurfacing of the lot but also curb and gutter work along with earthwork and some tree work.

Birmingham Sealcoat, a local company, was the second lowest bidder behind Diamond Excavating, LLC whose bid came in at $237,759.35, a more than $10,000 difference from Birmingham Sealcoat’s bid and 17 percent lower than the village engineer’s original estimate for the project.

Despite the standard practice of accepting the lowest bid, the council’s hands were tied in the decision because of the current purchasing policy in Oxford states that if the village receives a local bid, that bid must be treated as the lowest bid.

According to the village attorney, Bob Davis, the local preference for the purchasing ordinance had been put in place several years ago when council members at the time were “adamant” about having it as part of their ordinance, despite Davis’s concerns.

These concerns were also shared by the council who recognized the amount of work that was necessary in the village.

“We have so much work to do in the village with a tight budget so I’d prefer not to pay more just because someone has a business here, especially when it’s quite substantial,” said Council President Kelsey Cooke.

This issue teed the council up for another item on their agenda: to decide if council members would like to review and update their current purchasing ordinance.

“The goal is to make our purchasing processes not only effective but designed to get us the best pricing,” Davis said. “We’re not trying to create an ordinance that shortcuts the process in any way. We’re trying to get an ordinance in play that ensures that the village does the best awarding in a lawful way.”

Council members agreed that this was the right time to review the ordinance and are expected to review possible updates to the ordinance at their next meeting on Aug. 8.