Deputy County Administrator Soper and County Auditor Stephanie Lapeer presented proposed revisions to Jefferson County’s purchasing, contracting and credit-card policies at the Finance and Rules committee meeting and outlined a plan to launch a countywide credit-card rebate program with Commerce Bank.

Soper said the review began from interest in credit-card rebate programs and led the administration, attorneys and department heads to reassess longstanding purchasing thresholds and contract rules. The goals are modernization, reduced administrative burden and clearer guidance for departments. “We want everybody to know what the rules are, because that's going to help us move forward as a county in the most efficient way possible,” Soper said.

Key proposed changes described at the meeting include raising quote and bid thresholds that have not been updated since a 1991 quotation policy; permitting no purchase orders under $250; allowing department heads to sign contracts up to $10,000 and county administrators up to $20,000 within defined parameters (excluding indemnity or similar language that would bind the county); and merging separate purchasing and quotation policies into a single document.

Soper and Lapeer described planned practical tools to accompany the new policy, including a decision tree that department staff can use to determine whether a resolution is required and a short guidance tool that maps procurement steps by dollar threshold.

On the credit-card program, the county identified Commerce Bank as the vendor for three card types: a countywide accounts-payable (AP) virtual card to capture large vendor payments and rebate revenue share, departmental virtual cards intended for online/phone transactions, and physical purchasing cards (P-cards) intended mainly for travel and situations requiring a plastic card. The administration said Commerce Bank provided a conservative initial estimate of $9.9 million in annual spend eligible for AP-card rebate tiers and that some large vendors (for example: Grainger, Motorola Solutions and W.B. Mason) already participate in Commerce’s cooperative, which could raise the county’s revenue share as more vendors enroll.

Soper said the administration plans a phased rollout, starting with a few departments, and expects rebate revenue to grow over time; the presentation included an optimistic target of capturing up to $120,000 in annual rebates by 2026 if participation increases, but the administration said they would start slowly to work out issues.

The proposed credit-card policy would require cardholder agreements, itemized receipts, tax-exempt purchasing where allowed, card audits and recoupment where unauthorized expenditures occur. Soper said the policy will forbid use of cards where vendors charge fees for card acceptance; a committee member asked specifically about gasoline purchases and the presenter said the county uses a WEX fuel-account program and would avoid credit-card purchases where sales tax or vendor fees apply.

Other changes the presenters described include raising the fixed-asset capitalization threshold from $500 to $5,000 to align with accounting standards; splitting the existing travel-and-credit-card policy into separate travel and credit-card policies; and retaining specific contracting authorities already granted by statute or prior board action for airport, highway and Department of Social Services functions.

Next steps: Soper said draft policy documents (with tracked changes) will be circulated to department heads for comment and then brought to the committee for formal introduction and vote. The committee discussion included questions from multiple legislators; no vote on the policies occurred at this meeting.

Direct quotes in the meeting included: “We want everybody to know what the rules are,” Soper said, and Lapeer, describing the credit-card rollout, said the county will “start slow” with a phased implementation.