City Contracts: Just the Facts

By Dave Freneaux

   With the publicity surrounding the pending issuance of a new City Services contract, many questions have been brought to CentralSpeaks.com regarding how contracts are handled by municipalities such as the City of Central.  Here, in brief, is some information on Cities and Contracts which may provide some of the answers:

    The City of Central is governed by the Lawrason Act.  Under the Lawrason Act the City Council's primary authority is to "Enact ordinances and enforce the same…".  The City Council has the sole authority to pass legislation, including the appropriation of monies to fund any contract the Mayor chooses to execute on behalf of the City.   Under the Lawrason Act "The Mayor is the chief executive officer" and has the sole authority  "To sign all contracts on behalf of the municipality."  In essence, Central, like our Federal Government, has a legislative and an executive branch, and the authority of each branch is clearly defined and serves as a system of checks and balances.  To allow either the Mayor or the Council the authority to both fund contracts and to select the contractor would place unchecked power in the hands of one branch of government.

     The contract for City Services which is being put out for bids over the next few months is a "Professional Services Contract" in which the City will hire a private company or companies to perform specific services for an agreed fee.  Specific guidelines are set out in Attorney General Opinion 09-0264 as to how contracts are to be executed.  The Attorney General Opinion states:  "Finally, based upon the concept of the Mayor/Board of Aldermen (City Council) division of power, it does not appear that the board of aldermen has a duty or right to approve specific bills for payment. While the Board of Aldermen approves the budget, once the budget has been approved and the funds have been appropriated, the mayor has the power and the duty to pay bills in the conduct of the proper administration of municipal affairs. Accordingly, it is the opinion of this office that the Board of Aldermen has no duty or right to approve specific professional services contracts for payment when the contract falls within a category on the approved budget and proper appropriations have been made."

    In an effort to promote citizen involvement Mayor Watts has, over the past months, used a committee of twenty-one citizens and experts to write the new City Services contract, and has appointed a nine member selection committee to evaluate bids and recommend contract awards.  Attorney General Opinion 05-0424 addresses this process in stating: "A mayor may appoint individuals of his choice to conduct a fact-finding mission and to render a report on the outcome of their investigation.  However, the advisory group can only report their findings to the mayor and nothing more.  They can take no independent action on their own.  The advisability of pursuing such course of action is within the sole discretion of the mayor."  Thus, at the end of the evaluation process for the City Services contract bidders, the right to award the contract(s) is reserved for the Mayor in a Lawrason Act City such as Central.

    To recap, the Mayor in a Lawrason Act City is able to utilize advisory committees to research and recommend action on a contract.  The Mayor has the sole authority to enter into that contract, and the Council has the sole authority to appropriate funding for that contract.  On July 1, 2011 the City of Central will have gone through these processes and should have a new contract in place for the provision of City Services.