By Kenny Walter
Staff Writer
LONG BRANCH- The city may be moving into the digital age.
Long Branch is in the process of moving the auctions of police equipment, vehicles and other items online.
Finance Director Michael Martin said during the March 8 Workshop meeting that the city should move auctions online, using www.govdeals.com, a website designed for government auctions.
“We can have the auction for a longer period of time, we can open the auction for seven days on the Internet,” Martin said. “You get a greater volume of bidders.
“On the website, they are literally thousands of people and they are looking at the site all the time. The site is established, we are not guinea pigs.”
Martin said it does not cost anything to join the website other than the commission on sold items.
Martin said the city would put the items onto the website and people could participate in the auction from anywhere.
“We’ll be taking the photos and uploading them to the site ourselves,” he said. “We don’t have to advertise in the paper, there is a lot of steps that we don’t have to go through that will make it easier.”
City attorney James Aaron said before putting any item on the auction site, the council must pass a resolution.
“The council needs a resolution any time an item is to be sold,” he said. “So in advance, you will be told what item it is, why it is going to be sold, whether it is police equipment, fire equipment, whatever it is going to be.
“This becomes then the process for selling it.”
According to Aaron, there are 253 municipalities, 173 school districts and other utility authorities, law enforcement agencies and other public entities across the state using the website.
Councilwoman Kate Billings said that she explored the website and was impressed by how easy it is to use.
“I was on the website and it was interesting,” she said. “You go and say you want to buy a garbage truck, you click and all these garbage trucks come up.
“It shows you how many bids have been placed on it and how much it is.”
Mayor Adam Schneider likened it to “eBay for government.”
While the larger ticket items like police equipment and vehicles will go to the online auction system, Martin suggested keeping the bicycle auctions local.
“I think the bicycle is more of a local thing, it kind of benefits more the local people,” Martin said. I suggest we still do that because it is a smaller scale with less people, less labor involved.
