The Bryan County Board of Commissioners updated two policies, dealing with purchasing and sick leave, at its monthly meeting recently.

The new purchasing policy actually brings together bits and pieces of old policies on the matter, some of which date back 30 years. It applies only to expenditures that are budgeted for and includes a four-step process of budget approval, bid solicitation, bid award and check issuance. Checks have to be signed by two authorized designees.

Purchases up to $3,000 can be made by department heads based on the best option available. Anything from $3,001 to $10,000 requires an attempt to get three price quotes by phone and require approval from the county administrator or finance director.

Items from $10,001 to $40,000 require two written quotes and three phone quotes and approval by the county administrator. Purchases of $40,001 to $100,000 require advertising for and receiving sealed bids and can be approved by the county administrator and board chairman. Anything over $100,000 requires the same process plus a vote by the full board.

“This puts it in pretty good order,” Chairman Jimmy Burnsed said. “It makes things easier administratively since the board only meets once a month.”

Commissioners also modified the sick leave policy to create an employee pool. Employees can “buy in” by donating leave time to the pool in 4-, 8- or 16-hour increments.

“In the past it’s been something an employee had to solicit on a person-to-person donation,” County Administrator Ben Taylor said. “This takes the internal politics out of it.”

The new policy also lowers the amount of extended leave time allowable from 60 days to 30 days, excluding maternity leave. Taylor said he thinks the new policy will encourage more employees to participate in the county’s short- and long-term disability insurance coverage.