Town of Parker goes above and beyond purchasing policies
October 10, 2024Purchasing policies can vary from state to state and those rules change even more on the local government level. Traci Gorman, Procurement Officer for the Town of Parker, Colorado makes certain to not only follow the rules and guidelines, but exceed them whenever possible. Bidnet Direct by SOVRA is a staple to many public buying organizations throughout the country, including in Colorado with over 200 local governments utilizing the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System. Gorman is very familiar with Bidnet Direct by SOVRA’s e-sourcing solution as she was part of the team to help launch the use of the platform during her time at the Town of Castle Rock and she used the system at Arapahoe County before moving to the Town of Parker. Gorman explains how the Bidnet Direct by SOVRAsolution helps purchasing professionals exceed policies and guidelines through transparency, sourcing tools and features of the platform and vendor outreach.
Purchasing by “home rule”
Every local government organization has different purchasing processes, with some dictated based on state or federal procurement guidelines. However, Colorado has a “home rule” law, which allows local municipalities to remain under their own control without having outside influences. The Town of Parker follows “home rule” purchasing, as Gorman explains “we have a municipal code that drives what we can and cannot do…and that municipal code kind of drives other things.”
Gorman explains the flexibility with a home rule policy and the benefits to smaller municipalities. “It offers us a little more flexibility in a procurement policy …it says that we make our own guidelines in general, but we try to follow the State’s rules and guidelines. We follow state statutes, and we follow the FEMA guidelines when it comes to Federal dollars. So we follow those [rules], but it allows us a little flexibility in other avenues to do what’s best for our agency and our community” she concludes.
Extending to procurement policy, Gorman explains “We try to follow the procurement guidelines of: it has to be competitively put out there [to bid], we need to make sure we are doing a fair and transparent process, and all of those things. And Bidnet Direct by SOVRA’s Rocky Mountain [E-Purchasing System] offers those things for us. We have recently started using [the Purchasing Group] for some of our quoting processes as well, to reach a larger market.”
Going above the guidelines
Another tool Gorman utilizes to exceed their required guidelines is Bidnet Direct by SOVRA’s bid library. Using the bid library, local government agencies such as the Town of Parker have the ability to view tens of thousands of previously posted solicitations, addenda, and awards from participating local government agencies throughout the United States.
Gorman says that it is very helpful in piggyback situations where another local Colorado agency already has a contract for the same goods or services the Town is looking to put out to bid. Many government agencies include “piggyback” language in their solicitation documents to allow other agencies the ability to use their solicitation process to enter into an agreement for goods/services with the awarded vendor/firm. This saves time and costs associated with issuing the solicitation on their own. Gorman explains that the bid library helps, even if the matching solicitation does not explicitly state that it can be used by other agencies. She provides an example stating “we are looking to piggyback off a solicitation with another small agency that’s just down the road from us that is another home rule agency. It allowed me to go in and look at their documents and find that they did not have any piggyback language in it so that when I called them, I could talk to them about ‘would you be willing to submit a letter to us allowing us to use your process?’ So [the searchable bid library] gives me a little bit of information up front before I reach out and contact them.” The system also opens up the lines of communication between agencies to discuss volume buying power by consolidating their purchases into a cooperative solicitation. If two agencies within miles of each other are purchasing the same product, why not consolidate and get better pricing?
In addition to using the library for possible piggyback bids, the bids posted within the library can also be used by other agencies as examples to assist them in creating their own solicitation if necessary. The feature saves local government organizations time and money by potentially providing language that works, and the ability to see what doesn’t. This also allows Parker to possibly piggyback off of already awarded bids for similar goods/services.
“Helping other agencies find out about [the Purchasing Group] is only going to benefit my agency, the other agencies, and the vendors as well.”
Traci Gorman, Procurement Officer for the Town of Parker
Gorman has seen firsthand how features such as the reporting, tracking, and bid library can streamline the Town’s purchasing processes. It is a benefit to both vendors and local government purchasing teams to continue to expand the number of participating local agencies utilizing the platform for bid and vendor management. As of May of 2018, 212 local government agencies are using the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, with new vendors registering daily and local agencies joining to streamline purchasing. Gorman explains why talking about the Town’s experience is a win for everyone, “Helping other agencies find out about [the Purchasing Group] is only going to benefit my agency, the other agencies, and the vendors as well.”
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