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Taos board debates emergency purchase orders, seeks contract review by legal
Summary
Board members questioned open emergency purchase orders and use of cooperative contracts (CES/ACES) for HVAC, electrical and maintenance work. The board asked staff to provide underlying co‑op contracts to the attorney for review and tabled two vendor items for the August 6 meeting.
Board members raised concerns July 23 about a set of open emergency purchase orders for district maintenance and service vendors and directed staff to submit the cooperative contracts to district counsel for review before approving several large requisitions.
Operations staff explained the open purchase orders are intended to let vendors respond quickly to urgent failures (boilers, HVAC, plumbing, electrical outages) and said many calls occur after hours; the district currently operates under cooperative purchasing agreements through CES and ACES. “When something does go down…we need to have somebody we can call out, at all hours,” the operations representative said, citing boiler pumps and rooftop unit failures.
Board members and counsel pushed back on the practice of approving open requisitions in advance of a contract review, noting procurement rules require that vendor contracts and the ‘‘best obtainable price’’ be demonstrable before the board approves large requisitions. Secretary Trujillo asked staff to request the CES/ACES contract documentation so the district’s legal team can confirm terms and liability language.
Several agenda items (12.1–12.4 in the consent packet) were discussed and two vendor items tied to high‑cost electrical and HVAC work were specifically tabled to Aug. 6 to allow legal review and additional procurement justification. Administrators said the high school had an imminently failing pump on a boiler and cooling‑tower issues at Enos; staff pledged to prioritize repairs and to provide contract documentation for board review.
The board asked procurement and legal staff to show: the cooperative contract numbers, vendor scopes, historical spending, compliance with public procurement rules and a justification for emergency open purchase orders. No contract was approved at the meeting; the board approved the consent agenda with exceptions and set the tabling for Aug. 6.
