Select Board member Joseph Deedy.
Reminder Publishing file photo
SOUTHWICK — Select Board member Joseph Deedy received pushback from fellow member Russ Anderson after proposing that the town’s department heads submit a purchase order for every purchase, no matter how small.
“I disagree,” Anderson said in response to Deedy’s proposal, which would have department heads go back to a purchasing system used by the town’s accounting department for decades.
“I mean, it slows down the system terribly … waiting for purchase orders [when] you’re trying to do something … there’s no added value to it,” Anderson said during the board’s meeting on June 22.
Deedy said on June 23 he requested that the purchasing policy be put on the agenda to “just have a discussion” about it.
When he started the discussion during the meeting, he said that the town had used purchase orders in the past and “had gotten away from it.”
“I think we need to bring them back, especially if our money’s going to be tight as it looks,” said Deedy, who also serves as chair of the town’s Finance Committee.
A little over a year ago, Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker decided to change the purchasing policy to make it more efficient and create less work for the department heads and the accounting department.
On June 23, she explained the purchasing process that was in use when she was appointed in April 2024.
For any amount from $1 to $10,000, when a department head wanted to buy anything for operations, they would fill out a purchase order and get it to the accounting department, either by hand or email.
The accounting department would check to ensure there were sufficient funds in the department’s budget for the purchase. The purchase order would be submitted to Parker for approval. Parker would sign it, return it to the department head, and the purchase would be made.
After her first several months as the town’s CAO, Parker asked the department heads what they would change if they could.
She said that “across the board,” department heads wanted the purchasing policy to be easier.
With that, she proposed to the Select Board that departmental purchases below $5,000 not require a purchase order.
The board was hesitant to sign off on the $5,000 threshold but agreed to $3,000.
Deedy said at the June 22 meeting that going back to the original system would “help with accountability and checks and balances.”
However, he said the system wasn’t perfect and could “use some updates.”
“But I think you need purchase orders,” he said.
“Here we are at the end of the [fiscal] year, and I’m sure [the accounting department is] still getting bills in. The system now doesn’t seem to account for anything until after the fact,” he said, prompting an immediate response from Anderson.
“What, so you mean by ‘after the fact,’” he asked, which Deedy answered with another question.
“Well, how does it work now without a purchase order?” Deedy said.
Anderson said the department head buys something under $3,000 and submits the bill to accounting.
“But the department heads [are] responsible for his budget or her budget,” Anderson said.
Deedy then asked what would happen if there were an “issue” with the purchase, to which Anderson answered, “what’s the issue?”
Deedy asked what would happen if a purchase was made and needed to be returned.
“You can’t return the product, return what you bought,” Deedy said.
Anderson shot back: “You wouldn’t with a PO either.”
“True,” Deedy responded.
Parker clarified that for purchases under $3,000, “no purchase order is necessary.”
“And I think there needs to be,” Deedy said, adding later that having the original system would provide “accountability” for everyone.
That prompted Anderson to ask, “Who’s not being accountable?”
Deedy didn’t answer the question.
Select Board Chair Douglas Moglin, who had yet to join the discussion, asked Parker when the town stopped using the original system.
Parker said about a year ago that she believed department heads were responsible for managing their own budgets.
“We’ve really emphasized that it’s important that we give this responsibility to the department heads … it makes things much more efficient,” she said, which prompted Deedy to ask how it was more efficient for the department heads.
“Because they can buy something and they can pay for it,” Parker answered. “They don’t have to wait days, or however long it takes [for the accounting department] to get the purchase order back [to her] for a $40 box of paper.”
Anderson said the town’s technology needs to improve.
“A department head can’t look up and see what the balance of their account is. They have to wait a month to get a readout of what their balance is,” he said, adding that other municipalities have systems that allow department heads to keep track of their spending daily.
Deedy then recanted his proposal that all purchases need a purchase order, suggesting the threshold should be $500 instead of $3,000.
Parker said $3,000 was a “good amount,” adding that she believed $10,000 was the best amount.
According to state law, every municipal purchase over $10,000 requires three bids.
Moglin said that department heads’ inability to easily access and monitor their budgets in real time was an issue.
“That’s an important piece of it. They should have access to that data so that they can see if they have the money in their budget to spend what they’re looking to spend,” he said.
Parker said department heads get bimonthly printouts of their spending.
However, she said she is working toward having all department heads use the town’s MUNIS system, which integrates core administrative operations like fund accounting, human resources, payroll and purchasing into a centralized database to eliminate data silos.
“I’m working on getting everybody access to MUNIS, and not that they can manipulate MUNIS, but then they can just go in in inquiries and look at account numbers and things like that,” she said, adding that department heads wouldn’t be able to change the program, “just make inquiries and look at account numbers.”
Because Parker must sign off on every purchase under the current system, Moglin asked whether Parker had vetted the “merits of the purchase.”
She didn’t answer directly, but on June 23, after the meeting, said that she believes department heads can make “sound decisions.”
Before Moglin suggested that any decision on changing the system should be pushed off at least until the board’s next meeting, Parker said, “I can assure you the department heads are happy that they don’t have to do it. If we wanted to raise it to $5,000 or $10,000, that’s even better, but I don’t suggest that we lower it.”
