Purchasing director outlines $39M in FY25 orders, City Hall renovations, bids and parking-app revenue

Arturo, the city's purchasing director, told the finance committee that fiscal year 2025 saw roughly 2,380 purchase orders totaling nearly $39 million and 85 contracts worth about $12.5 million. For the new fiscal year he said the city has already issued hundreds of purchase orders and is managing multiple active public procurement processes, including bids for the salt-shed roof, sidewalk and ramp projects on Waterford Street, and City Hall upgrades. Arturo said the City Hall upgrade project will require closing the front door for roughly eight weeks because pillars and stairs must be reset and four concrete pads in front of the steps will be replaced. The disability commission has been notified and staff are developing alternate, accessible routes via the Knowlton Street lot and added signage to direct public access and the ballot-drop box during construction. Windows for the auditorium will be purchased but installed after winter due to material lead times. Recent and pending procurement highlights Arturo raised: the Rear Main Street project (approximately $3.6 million), Greenwood Pool demolition and improvement (bid protest earlier this year was resolved in the city's favor), sale or lease of various city properties (94 Pleasant St. sold; leases and attempts to sell 62 Waterford St., 73 Stewart St.; 53 School St. disposition due Sept. 24; 130 Elm St. due Oct. 1), and a landfill leach-pump replacement project with bidding due in September. On civil enforcement and parking: Arturo said the new parking app has processed about 4,500 transactions this year for roughly $5,600 in receipts and has averaged about 17 transactions per day with spikes during events. He provided FY25 totals of approximately 810 meter violations tallying about $16,000 in fines (495 meter violations) and roughly 200 parking-ban/snow-removal violations; in early FY26 the office had received far fewer violations. For animal-control enforcement, Arturo said roughly 452 dogs were unlicensed at the time $50 citations were issued and about 125 resulted in court notices; owners who fail to license dogs, update addresses or submit rabies certificates may receive court summonses under state law. Arturo also reported the purchasing office established a purchase-order workflow, converted many processes to DocuSign and reduced paper usage, saved several thousand sheets by going paperless and created a PO-change-order procedure under review. He noted film production activity this year (a film shot 12 of 17 days in the city) and ongoing supplier-diversity outreach and a planned "partners in progress" event for Oct. 1 at the PACC.