CITY OF ALAMEDA ORDINANCE NO. ______
AMENDING THE ALAMEDA MUNICIPAL CODE BY AMENDING SECTION 2-59.3 (AUTHORIZATION OF CONTRACTS) OF CHAPTER II (ADMINISTRATION) TO INCREASE THE CITY MANAGER, CITY ATTORNEY, AND CITY CLERK’S CONTRACT AUTHORIZATION AUTHORITY WHEREAS, the City Council desires to increase the City Manager, City Attorney, City Clerk’s and designated staff’s purchasing threshold to achieve administrative efficiencies, in alignment with the City’s revised Purchasing Policy.
NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Alameda does hereby ordain as follows:
Section 1. AMENDMENT TO ALAMEDA MUNICIPAL CODE.
Section No. 2-59.3 (AUTHORIZATION OF CONTACTS) of Chapter 2 (ADMINISTRATION) of the Alameda Municipal Code, is hereby amended as follows (underlined for additions and strikeout for deletions):
2-59.3 - Limitation and Power to Make Contracts.
Except as otherwise provided in the Charter or this Code, no employee of the City shall make any contract, obligating the City, or any department of the City, to make or receive payments of money or other valuable consideration for a period longer than five (5) years, unless such contract shall have been first approved by the Council.
For the purpose of this section, a contract obligating the City, or any operational department of the City, to make or receive payments or other valuable consideration for a period longer than five (5) years, shall include a contract which contains a provision, such as, but not limited to, an option clause, which allows for a cumulative period longer than five (5) years, said period calculated as of the date of execution of the contract.
Except as otherwise authorized by the Council, contracts for personal or professional services involving specialized knowledge, including, without limitation, architects, engineers, or accountants, in the amount of one hundred fifty seventy-five thousand ($150,000.00) ($75,000.00) dollars or more must be approved by Council. [Reserved.]
Settlement or comprise of any liability of the City, including workers' compensation compromise and release settlements, in excess of either one hundred fifty seventy-five thousand ($150,000.00) ($75,000.00) dollars or otherwise applicable statutory limits for delegation must be approved by the Council. The City Manager and the City Attorney are authorized to settle or compromise any such liability of the City when the amount necessary to be expended in order to settle or compromise such liability does not exceed either one hundred fifty seventy-five thousand ($150,000.00) ($75,000.00) dollars or any otherwise applicable statutory limitation below one hundred fifty seventy-five thousand ($150,000.00) ($75,000.00) dollars, without the necessity of first receiving approval of the City Council. The City Manager and the City Attorney are also authorized to settle or compromise any such liability of the City when the amount necessary to be expended in order to settle or compromise such liability exceeds a self-insured retention amount by the City and an entity providing excess coverage for the liability authorizes payments for the settlement or compromise.
SECTION 2. Severability.
If any provision of this Ordinance is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, this invalidity shall not affect other provisions of this Ordinance that can be given effect without the invalid provision and therefore the provisions of this Ordinance are severable. The City Council declares that it would have enacted each section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph and sentence notwithstanding the invalidity of any other section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph or sentence.
SECTION 3. Repeal.
Any provision of the Alameda Municipal Code inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, to the extent of such inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to the extent necessary to effect the provisions of this Ordinance.
Section 4. EFFECTIVE DATE
This ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after the expiration of thirty (30) days from the date of its final passage. ________________________________
Presiding Officer of the City Council
Attest:
__________________________________
Lara Weisiger, City Clerk
City of Alameda
* * * * * *
I, the undersigned, hereby certify that the foregoing Ordinance was duly and regularly adopted and passed by Council of the City of Alameda in regular meeting assembled on the __ day of ___________ 2026, by the following vote to wit:
AYES:
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTENTIONS:
IN WITNESS, WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the official seal of said City the ___ day of __________ 2026. ______________________
Lara Weisiger, City Clerk
City of Alameda
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
______________________
Len Aslanian, Alameda City Attorney
City of Alameda