Thank you, Member Babcock

Canton City Council Member At Large James Babcock made an unusual request at Monday's meeting. He asked for a summary of an amended ordinance on unbid contracts before council voted to make it law. Law Director Kristen Bates Aylward provided an oral summary.

This meant citizens in the audience could understand what council was voting to approve.

Frequently when council votes on an amended ordinance, members are told that they have a copy of the amended ordinance at their desks. Good for them. What about everybody else? Thanks to Babcock, everybody else was well served on Monday night.

Maybe council has never thought about the need to explain what it is doing at moments like this. Let's hope members felt good about what happened last night and will adopt this practice going forward.

The new law allows the administration of Mayor Thomas Bernabei to purchase up to $50,000 in goods or services without competitive bidding, which is allowed under state law and which will allow the city to fulfill needs without the weeks-long process of seeking competitive bids. At the same time, City Council reserved the power to approve the spending on an unbid contract by resolution when its cost will run between $25,000 and $50,000. This was the result of a compromise between City Council's insistence on monitoring spending and the administration's desire to be more efficient in fulfilling needs.