The Crookston Ways & Means Committee held two discussions Monday night on the city’s surplus property and the city administrator’s spending authority.
Currently, the City Charter doesn’t allow for the City of Crookston to make surplus donations to non-profit organizations, according to City Administrator Amy Finch. However, that has occurred recently under former city administrators (here) and would be allowable by Minnesota State Statute. “We recently had a request come up and a discussion of can we donate property deemed surplus to a non-profit organization,” said Finch. “When we looked at our City Code, it doesn’t allow the flexibility even to consider a donation. State Statute does have provisions to allow that, so we were looking for a Council decision tonight on whether they wanted us to move forward on that.”
The committee said they’d like to have the option to donate things where appropriate and requested the staff present an amendment. Finch added that the staff would also be looking to address how to estimate property value. “We did get a consensus, so we’ll be putting some things together,” said Finch. “Bringing back some options for them to look at on how we could maybe include some different dollar limits and the flexibility to donate. And how we will determine the estimated value of the property.”
The other discussion was on the City Administrator’s spending authority, currently set at $10,000. Finch said that some items have to be approved as many as three times by the City Council because of how the resolution for the spending authority was written. “We’re really taking a comprehensive look at how we are routing items through for approval,” said Finch. “How we get things to the finish line. One of the efficiencies we’ve noticed is something could be approved in the Capital Budget, later approved in the Annual Budget. Then, we bring it back again to Council by resolution because it is above the City Administrator’s spending authority. That takes time away from staff in preparing those resolutions and for Council to see those items three times. So, where we landed this evening was to add some verbiage to an amended resolution to allow a budgeted item to go through under the City Administrator’s authority as long as the amount budgeted is still available.”
Finch said recently she’s been looking at the ATV and sprayer approved by the City Council in the budget as an item that will need a third approval. “That alone will allow some items to be processed more quickly,” said Finch. “An example that I touched recently was the ATV and sprayer for the parks department. A Capital Budget item, regular budget item, and above my current spending limit, so that will be coming to Council by resolution for a third approval. So, looking to clean up some inefficiencies and have a clearer path to get some items to a finish line.”
Finch also told the committee that the dollar’s power has changed since the spending authority was set. The $10,000 set in 2000 is now the equivalent of approximately $38,000 today. While the committee agreed it wanted to make things simpler for items they’d already approved, they still felt a $10,000 spending authority was appropriate for non-budget items. Finch said some expenses that fall under her spending authority would still be presented to the City Council depending on the city’s situation and need. “There are items that may fall under my spending authority that will still be brought forward to the Council for discussion and a decision,” said Finch. “That’s going to depend on is it an emergency item – is it something we rely on every day that we need to give service to the community that we need to get taken care of and we would anyway – or is it something we’d like their feedback and approval on. That spending authority doesn’t mean that anything under that would never be brought to Council, and I think that’s an important statement to make. It really depends on what it is, but many things I approve of on a day-to-day basis are day-to-day items that are required to keep the city running.”