The City Council will consider a measure on Tuesday requiring any consultant contracts approved by the city manager to be displayed online for 30 days.
“It’s basically increasing transparency through online disclosure,” said Councilwoman Leslie Daigle, who said she will propose the measure at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The Newport Beach City Council must approve all consultant contracts valued at $120,000 or more, while the city manager has authority to approve any valued at less than that amount. The new administrative procedure that Daigle is proposing would require all of the city-approved contracts and details about those contracts to be posted online for 30 days after the contract has been awarded.
“This is a transparency measure to build upon earlier efforts,“ Daigle wrote in an email. “A budget is a good start but doesn’t disclose the details of consultants working for the city and what they are doing.”
The procedure mirrors an existing practice in the city of Anaheim. Anaheim’s online listing of professional service agreements approved by the city manager includes information about the person or company awarded the contract, details about the services provided, date awarded, amount awarded, department receiving services, and the department manager and manager’s phone number.
It’s as much about the cost of the contract as it is the details of the contract, Daigle said.
