The Americus City Council met May 15. The Council heard an ordinance to raise the spending limit for department heads and the city manager without it going to a vote by city council. The ordinance would increase the authorization limit for department heads to $5,000 and the city manager to $20,0000.

Council member Nicole Smith commented on the ordinance. She stated that while Council member Nelson Brown had made a suggestion in a previous meeting, she didn’t recall the council giving approval to raise the city manager’s spending limit to $20,000. She said procedure was important.

Council member Daryl Dowdell also commented. “We didn’t have any discussion on it either.”

Mayor Lee Kinnamon commented. “The first reading really doesn’t take place until next Thursday. The second reading is required on the regular meeting in June.” The ordinance has to be read before going to a vote.

Powell commented on the ordinance. “This particular item was presented to or sent to Mr. Skipper [the city attorney]. I believe our finance director did some research, and based on the number of years, the time that it had been since we changed it, this was the recommendation from him.”

Smith stated they should have seen the documentation submitted to the city attorney. “I just personally would like some information before we get here.”

Finance director Rob Taylor spoke about the reason for the update. He gave an invoice for $10,000 that was on the agenda as an example, which required the consent of council to be paid. “We should not be delaying to pay the vendors. That just really breeds some distrust.”

Dowdell agreed that vendor payments should not be delayed.

Brown questioned the accountability measures for department and city manager spending.

Taylor responded. “Yes, the exact same accountability for our current status of $1,000 to $10,000 will be in place for $5000 to $20,000.”

Brown expressed a need to review existing accountability measures. Kinnamon reiterated that they would like a review of internal controls. He also asked for the research on other jurisdictions to find out what was a normal authorization limit.

Brown commented that he did not want to delay the measure, but would appreciate seeing their information as soon as possible.