At tomorrow’s meeting, Council Vice President Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson will introduce a motion urging the Council to explore instituting mandatory Council review of certain City-issued requests for proposals (RFPs).
Clarkson drafted the motion after recent budget hearings led her and other councilmembers to question whether the Council – the body responsible for approving and overseeing the City’s operating budget – ought to play a greater role in overseeing City-issued RFPs.
“The Council is the financial custodian of the City,” Clarkson said. “We have a responsibility to check and balance the City’s financial processes – including RFPs, especially those involving significant amounts of taxpayer dollars and those that have the potential to be renewed.”
According to the Charter, the Mayor and the Department of Finance have the power to issue RFPs. The Charter also gives the Council the power to require the signatures of other officers before the contract can go into effect.
“We need the power to oversee these RFPs on the front end – not after the fact when time and resources have been already been spent,” Clarkson said.
Should Clarkson’s motion be approved, the Council would begin to review the RFP process and consider details – such as over what amount RFPs should require Council approval – before drafting and considering a final ordinance outlining a specific review policy.
Because the ordinance would alter a matter of the City Charter, it would require voter approval in a citywide election. Such an election would not be able to be held until summer or fall of 2010 because of state deadlines.
