Escambia Considers Dropping Newspaper Ads In Favor Of Online Property Auctions

June 15, 2009

The Escambia County Commission will consider an ordinance this week that will move the process of auctioning surplus county property online and out of the printed newspaper.

Currently, the commission auctions surplus items and real property via a bid process that begins with a paid legal notice in the Pensacola News Journal. Under the ordinance to be considered by the commission this week, those surplus property auctions will move to the Internet.

The resolution states that the county will operate its own auction site, or use an existing auction site that will allow the county exclusive control of the term and conditions of the auctions, the qualifications of bidders, the ability to post bid specifications and contracts.

The surplus property auctions will be advertised on the auction site for at least six days and will not be advertised in the newspaper. The county will not require sealed bids; rather, the auction will work much like an auction on a site like Ebay — interested parties will simply make online bids for the property.

The county will then notify the highest bidder by email.

If the county does not run the auctions on its own web site, the auction web site to be used will be determined by the county’s normal competitive process in accordance with current purchasing policies and procedures.

The Escambia Commission will consider the proposal at a Tuesday Committee of the Whole meeting and vote on it at their Thursday afternoon regular meeting.

Comments

One Response to “Escambia Considers Dropping Newspaper Ads In Favor Of Online Property Auctions”

  1. Joseph on June 15th, 2009 2:11 pm

    This is happening in a multitude of counties across the country. Many have already found out the hard way that maintaining such a website is substantially more costly than traditional methods of advertising.
    They have also found that the bidding process is more cumbersome and the process for pre-qualifying bidders is ultimately more time consuming than the processes now used.