Palm Beach Town Manager Kirk Blouin has been granted expanded authority to approve higher-dollar contracts for goods, services and construction projects without Town Council approval.
During their most recent meeting, council members voted to increase Blouin’s purchasing authority for goods and services from $100,000 to $150,000 and for construction contracts from $100,000 to $250,000. The council also raised the town manager’s emergency purchasing authority from $250,000 to $500,000.
The changes follow a review by the town’s Procurement and Contract Management Division of purchasing thresholds used by other Florida municipalities.
Palm Beach reviews procurement authority levels used by other municipalities every two years, according to town documents, with this year’s analysis including Coral Gables, Boca Raton, Weston and Naples.
Coral Gables authorizes its city manager to approve contracts up to $250,000, while Boca Raton sets limits of $200,000 for goods and services and $500,000 for construction projects. Weston’s threshold is $150,000, while Naples sets its limit at $50,000.
According to a May 1 memo from Procurement and Contract Management Division Director Dean Mealy, the town processed 133 purchase orders and change orders exceeding $100,000 since the start of the 2025-26 fiscal year. All were previously budgeted or funded through donations.
During the council’s May 12 meeting, Blouin said the change was intended to improve operational efficiency and reduce the number of routine items appearing on council agendas. He added that many of the items involve recurring maintenance and infrastructure work, including beach monitoring and projects tied to permitting and beach nourishment.
“This has to do with operational efficiencies,” he said, noting that many higher-cost items are already budgeted and part of recurring annual work that comes before the council regularly.
He added that even with higher thresholds, most major contracts would still be reviewed by the council.
Mealy said this was the fourth time since 2017 staff had asked the council to raise the town manager’s purchasing authority, which at that time stood at $14,999. He said benchmarking shows Palm Beach’s limits are below or comparable to those of peer municipalities.
Council members weighed efficiency against oversight, supporting fewer routine reviews while emphasizing transparency and accountability.
Council member Lew Crampton said some oversight would still be needed.
“Trust but verify,” he said, noting concerns about how items would be handled if fewer come before the council on the so-called consent agenda.
Items on a meeting’s consent agenda can be approved as one without discussion, unless items are specifically singled out by one or more council members.
Mayor Danielle Moore supported the proposal but said she was concerned it could be affected by future changes in town leadership. She added she trusts the current town manager’s discretion but wants the policy revisited if leadership changes.
“I’m perfectly good with this one,” she said. “But I would want to make sure if there were a change in the manager of the town that it could be revisited by a future council. I don’t want to hand the next manager the kind of leeway that I think Kirk has earned from us.”
Mealy said the changes would remove about 60 items from the consent agenda, although unusual or non-budgeted items would still come before the council.
“If it wasn’t one of our year-in, year-out standard purchases that you know is part of the budget — even if it was below the threshold — I am going to bring it for the council to get your approval,” he said. “I don’t want to do something without your knowledge.”
Mealy said the town is also subject to oversight by the auditor, inspector general and state-level reviews.
Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach officials give town manager more leeway to OK expenditures
Reporting by Jodie Wagner, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
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