Section by Jim Lewis
No matter what claims are made in an election year, the usual formula for saving taxpayers' money is pretty basic: provide fewer services or redeploy staff to get more done with less.
But money can also be saved on the materials counties use to perform work the envelopes, gravel, computers, vehicles, food, furniture, pens, paper and countless other goods that counties buy.
Getting the best prices for the taxpayers' checkbook doesn't happen by happenstance, say purchasing agents and auditors who perform the function of county buying. Officials whose job is to shop with public funds know experience in purchasing makes dollars go further.
It was taught in Economics 101: the most obvious technique for effective purchasing is comparison shopping among vendors.
"Many county departments will find an item in the catalog and think that's what they have to pay but when you shop around, prices get better," said Denton County Purchasing Agent Beth Fleming. "It's a lot easier to pick up the phone and order something at list price, but throughout a budget year, the county ends up paying a lot more that way."
While state law requires competitive sealed bids on all purchases that exceed $15,000, counties that are large enough to centralize all buying through one department can take advantage of bulk prices for commonly used goods such as copier paper. Amy Holdeman, who handles purchasing in Harrison County, said consolidated procurement of office supplies saved 52 percent off the catalog listings in the first year that the county tried it.
Ector County consolidates its annual purchases for office furniture, motor vehicle equipment and building repairs, said Purchasing Agent Narita Holmes. Individually, many of those goods and services would fall below the $15,000 minimum, but since they are planned in the budget as a single, non-departmental line item, they're bid together, she said. Even air filters for the county's multiple buildings are bid together as a way to get the best bulk buy.
Establishing clear purchasing procedures, even for those items that fall below the state's $15,000 sealed bid cutoff, provides assurances that comparison shopping and bulk buying will occur routinely, instead of the more expensive practice of buying from a catalog.
In Corsicana, Navarro County Auditor Paula Tullos said commissioners court policy provides that for purchases over $1,000 but below $5,000, department heads must get three telephone quotes for over $5,000, written bids are required.
"We are trying to assure there is some comparison pricing going on," she said.
Running purchases through the auditor or purchasing agent also provides assurance that expenditures have been budgeted and that departments don't exceed their budgets. When requisition forms are submitted, funds are encumbered in the county's budget computer, which reduces the amount of money available in a particular budget line item, Tullos said.
"Before we began encumbering money up front, we were constantly having to go back to commissioners court at the end of the year to do line-item adjustments. Until all the invoices are in, we couldn't tell departments that they were about to over-expend their budgets," she said.
In Weatherford, the Parker County Commissioners Court policy allows department heads to make budgeted purchases under $1,000 at their own discretion. Items that fall in the $1,001 to $10,000 range require three telephone quotes and communication with Purchasing Agent Mike Wiley so that he can alert the department if he's aware of better prices available besides those checked. Goods in the $10,001-14,999 range are handled through Wiley's office, either by telephone bids or by the formal bidding process.
Through the county's automated purchase order system, Wiley assembles a vendor expenditure list, which allows him to help department heads avoid breaking state bidding laws inadvertently by making separate or sequential purchases that exceed the $15,000 state bidding mandate.
But the key advantage of a centralized purchasing operation is the experience that is gained, he said.
"The county may hire a guy to run a maintainer, which is a job I'm not qualified to do," Wiley said. "But if a commissioner wants to buy a maintainer at the best price, then I have the expertise to know how to get the best deal, because buying is what I do every day."
Wiley and others who buy for counties every day know how to draw up the bid specs, make sure all the qualified vendors are aware the county is looking, read the fine print about delivery dates and warrantees and certify that the state and local bid rules are followed.
Denton County's Fleming agreed.
"People who don't do purchasing often may not be aware of the meaning of certain contractual terms," she said. "They may not realize that a vendor who is offering a better price can't guarantee a reasonable delivery date or they may not comprehend the true meaning of a one-year maintenance contract. When you factor these items in, the lowest price may not be the best deal. That's where our buying experience comes in." *
Jim Lewis is editor of COUNTY Magazine.