City could explore Internet auctions

City officials are considering an Internet auction company as a way to sell local government surplus items. The Web site, govdeal.com, could be used to sell items as well as purchase them.

According to the Web site, it has machinery auctions, police auctions, U.S. Treasury auctions, farm auctions, government auctions, estate auctions, coin auctions, and used car auctions, just to name a few.

Using the Internet to sell surplus government property isn’t unheard of. According to city administrator David Rutherford, the Tennessee Municipal League reports that a number of cities use online auctions.

Use of the service requires a 7.5 percent fee on what is sold. Currently the city pays Hometown Realty a flat fee of $1,200 per auction with roughly two auctions per year.

After crunching the numbers regarding the last few auctions, officials report that the flat fee actually nets the city more money than going with the Internet.

The flat fee includes all advertising such as newspaper, billboards and handout flyers. The city pays $1,200 no matter the number of items and Hometown Realty supplies everything else. The 7.5 percent required by the site would be on every single item sold with a site representative taking the pictures.

The city recently signed a three-year contract with Hometown Realty, with the service being used for mostly confiscated vehicles and old surplus items such as computers. The city could use it for items that might not sell locally.

‘Right now, there is no reason to deviate from what we are doing,’ said Rutherford. ‘If the city has a piece of equipment, like a fire truck, that is unusual and that might not sell locally, we can always look at this.’