The city is preparing to send out for review by stakeholders a draft of its updated procurement policy proposed by staff, which includes a new provision for local preference.

City council was briefed on the policy during a lunch-hour meeting Thursday.

They heard administration would like to send the document out for review this fall and report back to council before the end of the year.

The document also proposes a substantial departure in procedure when it comes to awarding contracts – council’s input would no longer be required on the award of individual contracts.

Catherine Constable, the city’s manager of legislative services, told members of council that research and contract law show that municipalities open themselves to up to liabilities when elected councils get involved in contract awards.

She explained under the proposed procurement policy, city council’s involvement would be limited to two steps.

First of all, it would provide the new policy and its procurement guidelines, and secondly, it would establish its priorities through the annual budgeting process.

No longer would there be regular reports to council regarding contract awards; that awarding contracts would be left up to administration guided by the policy and the annual budget, she explained.

Currently – and for the past many years – city administration presents reports to city council asking for permission to award a contract. The reports include how many bidders there were, and up until recently, the amount of each bid.

Under the current practice, administration recommends the contract be awarded to a particular company based on qualifications and the bid price. Council then votes whether to accept the recommendation to award the contract.

Constable told council under the proposed policy, administration would no longer seek council’s approval for a contract award. It would simply award the contract based on the policy and budget.

Reports to council regarding contract awards require a good deal of staff time, and not having to make the reports would free up a considerable amount of time for administration to focus on other matters such as policy development, she told council Thursday.

Coun. Dan Boyd, however, expressed some reluctance about removing council entirely from the loop.

It was only because of the proposed award for the beautification of Alexander Street that came before council that area residents learned of the proposal and raised their objections at council’s next meeting.

Residents argued the city should first try to address the social problems in the neighbourhood related to the Whitehorse Emergency Shelter on Alexander before putting out more benches that would invite more loitering and more unsavoury behaviour. Council postponed the contract award as a result, and eventually cancelled it after its three-week break in August because time was running out to do the work.

Boyd told his elected colleagues that without that contract award coming before council, without the public discussion through the media, area residents would not have learned the contract award was imminent.

Coun. Steve Roddick wanted to know if there wasn’t a more fulsome method of weighing bids to give credit for the local impact of awarding a contract.

You can have two local suppliers bidding, and in one case the profits will be sent south but in the other, more of the money would stay here and have a greater on the local economy, he said.

Roddick asked if there was not a method to take into account the local impact.

Members of council indicated to administration they felt there needed to be more work on the new procurement policy, though they agreed what administration is proposing currently should go out for review by stakeholders.

In an interview following the meeting, Constable explained the proposed policy does provide for local preference on bids, though she said details are still confidential until the policy is released.