AgdaPkt 2018-09-10 Joint SA PFA - Laserfiche WebLink

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6.1.13. - Page 20 From the Grand Jury's prior reports and the County's Purchasing Compliance Committee's report, it is eminently clear that the Purchasing Division requires significant reform. The Grand Jury recommends that the County develop and study a plan to achieve the Checkpoints on the Pathway towards City -County Procurement Cooperation within current plans to improve the Purchasing Division. The Grand Jury recognizes that the implementation of C -CPC will require upfront investment by the County before significant savings can be achieved. To the extent the County determines the cost of implementing this plan would result in greater cost to the County not recouped by cost savings, the County could propose a cost sharing fee for those Cities accessing the collective purchasing program. City officials expressed pleasure with the RFP cost sharing arrangement for the Turbo Data Systems contract and expressed willingness to participate in cost sharing arrangements when those contracts would allow their city to access greater savings. As the County continues to improve the PD, beginning with a Controller's Office Audit to be completed by December 31, 2018,81 achieving these nine checkpoints may unlock C -CPC and tens of millions of dollars in potential savings each year. FINDINGS F1. All 20 of the cities in the County purchase goods and services through decentralized purchasing systems. F2. Decentralized purchasing systems successfully allow the Cities to procure goods and services at fair market prices while minimizing labor costs. F3. The creation of a centralized purchasing department to provide the organization with advanced procurement services and guidance can be cost prohibitive. F4. While city employees receive training on municipal purchasing guidelines and policies, many employees who conduct purchasing operations as a secondary responsibility are not trained or instructed to negotiate optimum prices by leveraging market power. F5. City employees who conduct purchasing operations as a secondary responsibility often do not identify commonly purchased goods that other departments also purchase and so miss the opportunity to negotiate lower costs which could be obtained by purchasing the items in bulk for multiple departments. F6. Cooperative purchasing practices allow multiple public entities to collaboratively purchase goods and services, thereby gaining economies of scale that they would otherwise not have. F7. Cooperative purchasing practices are compatible with decentralized purchasing systems and can allow the Cities to leverage their collective market power, without changing existing purchasing systems. 81 Ibid. 27. 2017-2018 San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury 17