This morning I trekked out to the west side to the Common Sense Coalition’s meeting regarding small businesses. It was quite the adventure, but not because of the snow . . . this story begins on last Tuesday.
Talking to Russ Frank
On Tuesday afternoon, Vicky Selkowe and I went out to visit Russ Frank of the Madison Top Company to talk about the paid sick leave ordinance. After I got in the door (which was problematic as Aaron tried to lock me out!) we actually had a pleasant conversation despite some of our differences. In fact, we found things we could agree on. So much so, that I told Russ Frank that I would introduce a resolution at the next council meeting to get us moving towards giving preferences to local businesses when the city is purchasing goods and services.
Previous thoughts on Local Purchasing
I made that promise with some confidence because over a year ago when I was on the Board of Estimates, we had a little controversy over the labor practices of Cintas and we asked the City Attorney to brief us on the purchasing policies for the City of Madison. On September 17th, 2004 the City Attorney gave us a draft memo with a list of where one could find our purchasing policies for the City of Madison and then said that the staff team would be working on a comprehensive purchasing policy book. At the time, I took the memo, looked up all the APMs, ordinances and state laws and threw them in a folder. I also did a little research on my own and rediscovered the newrules.org website. And had some good intentions, but never followed through.
Talking to others and researching a local purchasing resolution
On Wednesday I talked to Susan Schmitz at Downtown Madison Inc. about another matter, but gave her a heads up about the resolution that I was working on and she suggested that I talk with Jim Bradley at Home Savings which I did. We were able to talk about the local “buy local” initiatives and how to approach getting the city to purchase locally. I then went home and did a bunch of research. (One of the things I found on the comptrollers website was the recipes! Which, by the way, I’m not being critical of, I just find it funny in a midwest-‘consin-church picnic-potluck kind of way. Lord knows when you might need some “no-fuss party potatoes” don’t cha know . . .)
What I discovered was that most of the purchasing policies that are implemented in cities and states throughout the United States are for bidding and requests for proposals (RFPs). However, the City of Madison breaks down purchasing as follows:
• Up to $1,000. Best value judgment is used to purchase low dollar commodities.
• Between $1,000 and $5,000. Informal price quotations are obtained unless reasonableness of price can be determined without competition.
• $5,000 – $25,000. A Request for Quotation or Bid is prepared and published in DemandStar.com. and Vendornet. Required response time is approximately three days to three weeks.
• $25,000 and up. Formal sealed bids/proposals are obtained on all purchases for goods and services Bids/Proposals will be posted in DemandStar.com and Vendornet. Additionally, notices may be published in the Wisconsin State Journal and other relevant publications as prescribed by applicable laws. Processing will take four to six weeks.
And I began to think that many of the ordinances adopted throughout the nation don’t really deal with alot of small dollar amounts of purchasing that might be done locally and that we may have purchasing methods that wouldn’t be covered by some of the resolutions and ordinances that I was looking at. In fact, I was quite certain that such ordinances wouldn’t cover City of Madison purchases under $5,000 and I suspected that only purchases over $25,000 would be covered. We purchase goods in the following ways:
• Purchase of Goods
Products, supplies and equipment are purchased through competitive processes using the Bid Thresholds as a guide.
• Purchase of Services
Consultant, professional, and technical services are often obtained through requests for proposal, which consider skill and experience as well as cost in the evaluation process.
• Cooperative Purchasing Agreements
The City utilizes available state, university and federal contracts at its discretion.
• Sole Source Negotiation
Also called noncompetitive negotiation, this method may be used when competition does not exist or would not be in the best interests of the City. For example, scientific equipment manufactured by only one vendor.
• Contract Methods
Purchasing Services creates annual blanket and contract purchase orders for various supplies and services. Many of these contract orders are established through the bidding process. Once contracts are awarded, city agencies can use Limited Purchase Orders (LPO) and Purchasing Cards to purchase miscellaneous items or predetermined items on the contracts directly from vendors.
• Purchasing Card
The Purchasing Card is a tool for agency employees to make low-dollar purchases (typically under $1,000) for official agency business needs. It allows for a faster and more efficient process of purchasing supplies.
And quite frankly I got concerned about a list I found for blanket purchase orders that had a list of vendors that had some local places and some non-locally owned places, but I couldn’t quickly figure out how you got to be on this list:
Blanket Contract Vendors Approved for P-Card Purchases
SUPPLIES
ACE HARDWARE
BADGER WELD.
CAMERA CO.
CAPITOL LOCK
CORP. EXPRESS
DORN HARDWARE
FASTENAL
FULL COMPASS
HOME DEPOT
JOHN S HYATT
KUBICHEK
LINDE GAS
MAUTZ PAINT
MENARDS
MESSNER INC
OFFICE DEPOT
OFFICE MAX
PEPSI
PERKINS OIL
PROF EQUIP
QPR
RUNDLE-SPENCE
SHOE BOX
STREICHERS
SUN BADGE
TAPCO
TEMP SYSTEMS
TOP PROMO.
UNISOURCE
VONDRA ENG
WASHINGTON EQUIP
WERNER ELEC
WINGRA REDI-MIX
SERVICES
ARAMARK
CAPITAL NEWSPAPERS
FED. EXPRESS
ISTHMUS PUBLISHING
OSI ENV.
REYNOLDS TRANSFER
ROTO ROOTER
TERMINIX
TRIGGS PLUMBING
UMOJA
UNION CAB
US CELLULAR
WASTE MGMT
WIL-KIL
XER-LITH
(10/10/2005)
Drafted Resolution
So, I ended up drafting a resolution that had the following in it:
Now, therefore be it resolved, that the Comptrollers office provide a report to the Common Council by xxxxxx regarding the following:
1. The fiscal and administrative feasibility of providing a local purchasing preference for local businesses.
2. Additional costs or costs savings that may be a result of a local purchasing policy.
3. Economic benefits to the City of Madison of a local purchasing policy.
4. Administrative challenges of a local purchasing policy.
5. Appropriate level of preference given in the bidding or rfp process.
6. Possible policies to encourage local purchasing through LPOs, Purchasing Cards and Purchase orders and any other method of purchasing items that do not require a RFP or bidding process.
CSC meeting this morning
So, imagine my surprise this morning when I heard that the CSC would be “mandating” that the City of Madison purchase locally. They even had their press release that went out a 5 am the morning of the meeting.
Talking to Russ Frank . . . again . . .
So, after the meeting, I talked to Russ Frank and asked him what I should do. Should I go forward as planned with some version of my drafted resolution, or was this a Common Sense Coalition issue and would I be stepping on their toes. Russ kind of shrugged his shoulders and said “I just want something to happen”. I agreed with him and am moving forward with my resolution which I will finish drafting and pass around the council on Tuesday for sponsors.
I’m not sure how much of this is coincidence, how much of it was just curious timing, or if this was, as many have suggested, some attempt to steal the credit, or what . . . but what I do know, is that I don’t care who gets the credit (btw – it likely belongs to Russ Frank). We should just work to make this happen to the degree we can do it. And hopefully the resolution I drafted will be a first step . . . It certainly does more than another press release.
