Estes Park reports power utility inventory buys above $30,000 lacked required bids

Town staff told the Estes Park Town Board that the Power and Communications division used competitive quotes instead of required bids for inventory purchases above $30,000.

Staff outlined a temporary way to comply while the town revises its purchasing policies. For now, the town plans to get at least one quote through SourceWell, a source that uses public bids, to meet the policy’s requirements. Its quote is often higher, so the town may buy from another source while seeking cost-effective purchases that comply with policy, staff said.

Power and Communications has used competitive quotes for inventory purchases regardless of order size since at least 2005, staff said. Staff believe the Water Division has used the same practice, though they do not know how far back it goes. Town staff found no documentation showing that the board or staff approved treating inventory purchases differently from other purchases.

A staff member told the board that utility employees seek the best prices and obtain competitive quotes, though the process falls short of closed-bidding requirements. The volume and frequency of Power and Communications purchases would make a closed bid on every order difficult, the staff member said. Staff may recommend the public-bid-source approach as a long-term solution to avoid “a full bid every time we're purchasing $50,000 in Trip Savers,” the staff member said.

Water may have to purchase “some proprietary chemicals that not everybody offers,” Trustee Chris Eshelman said. Those chemicals may be needed and state-approved, Eshelman said. A staff member said the purchasing policy allows sole-source purchases when there is no other option.

In February, the town bought 24 TripSaver reclosure devices for $134,381 without taking the purchase to the board, though it should have, staff said. The purchase came early in the town’s use of Tyler, before staff had formally established what documentation purchase orders required. Since then, the town has set those requirements and introduced procurement training and new Tyler checklists. Staff plan to report both purchasing issues again at the regular Policy 3.4 review in March 2027.