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County leaders flag procurement capacity, shared contracts and project accountability as targets for savings
Summary
County staff and commissioners discussed long-standing procurement shortcomings, shared contracts (including Zoom) and the need to assign project accountability to capture savings; officials said improvements require dedicated resources and follow-through.
Spokane County commissioners and staff used a July 21 strategic planning meeting to highlight procurement and contract management as underused areas for savings and operational improvement.
Why it matters: shared contracts, overlapping vendor agreements and inconsistent project ownership increase recurring costs across departments. Staff said some contracts have been discussed for years but lacked a responsible lead and sufficient resources to complete consolidation work.
What was said and why it matters: one county staff member described the problem as organizational: "If you want improvement, you gotta put their resource into the project to create the improvement, and you've gotta make the commitment and not stop a third of the way in or 70% of the way in," they said. Speakers mentioned the Zoom contract as an example of a procurement matter discussed over multiple budget cycles and noted that the county lacks procurement capacity to complete some consolidation projects without dedicated staffing.
Specific points raised: - Shared services and consolidated contracts can reduce duplicate pickups, vehicle routing and vendor fees; the county cited a vehicle-service consolidation that saved roughly $25,000 by replacing multiple daily pickups with one vendor arrangement. - Procurement and contract projects require an assigned owner and sustained resources. Several speakers said projects stall when responsibility is not assigned or when staffing is insufficient to execute long-term procurement initiatives. - Streamlining travel and per diem processing (using GSA first/last-day rules and simplified processes) also surfaced as a way to cut administrative cost and time.
Ending: Commissioners asked staff to identify high-value, feasible procurement consolidations and to assign project leads so contract consolidation delivers measurable savings before the budget is adopted.
