The roading contract was discussed by councillors in an extraordinary meeting held behind closed doors last week.
In a statement released yesterday, Mr Geddes said the meeting was held in a non-public forum to allow ongoing negotiations with the new contractor to continue.
The present contract has been held by Downer EDI Works since April 2004 and is due to expire on September 30.
The contract covers roading and maintenance services throughout the district, as well as environmental maintenance services like snow clearing, grass spraying and is worth about $32.5 million over five years.
The new contract would be different from the traditional measure and value contract, which lacked clear information about cost and did not give council the opportunity to discuss better alternative solutions directly with the contractor, Mr Geddes said.
Existing contracts meant council received a price for the job with little transparency about what the final cost of the job, in terms of labour, plant and overheads turned out to be.
"It left the council not knowing whether the treatment chosen was in fact the most effective and the best value for money," he said.
The new type of contract called "Target Price New Engineering Contract" was a more open book style of relationship.
"The big advantage is an overriding principle of partnership and co-operation that means we can look at each piece of work, agree on the best way to solve it and pay for the work that is done," Mr Geddes said.
Council would set the budget and the level of service required, with the contractor being paid the actual cost, plus an agreed margin.
If the contractor and the Council together found a more economic way to do the job then the savings would be shared between the parties.
An extra staff member would be employed in the new Council Infrastructure Services department, which would work closely with the successful contractor to manage contract work.
The new contract would meet New Zealand Transport Agency requirements, given that it funded 43% of the maintenance work.
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