The Washington County Board of Supervisors tabled action on review of their procurement policy for the engineer’s office during their recent meeting.

County Engineer Jacob Thorius says some changes to their procurement policy were directed by the Iowa Department of Homeland Security to update some state and federal language, as the county hopes to receive some funding from the agency to reimburse for derecho cleanup. The supervisors had some questions regarding the policy changes, as County Attorney John Gish also submitted some comments before their meeting Tuesday. Thorius says he made some increases to the recommended minimum dollar amounts for informal contracting, “So trying to find a number in there that was reasonable to still have some oversight by the board, but also not create some undue delays or extra steps to have to come back to the board for some relatively small dollar amounts in the grand scheme of the budget.”

The policy was tabled for at least one week so Thorius can incorporate Gish’s comments. Thorius’ proposed policy begins on page five of this document.