Atlanta interim procurement chief proposes five-team overhaul to cut 300+ day solicitation cycles

Chandra Houston, interim chief procurement officer for the City of Atlanta, told the Finance Executive Committee on June 25 that the Department of Procurement (DOP) will reorganize into five teams and adopt an industry “sourcing and procurement” model to reduce solicitation cycle times that currently average about 355 days for competitive solicitations.

Houston presented fiscal-year-to-date procurement metrics and said the department wants to be “much more strategic” about how it plans and sources work. “We do expect the days to this cycle time to go down drastically,” she said.

The presentation said the city advertised 146 solicitations between July 1 and May 8: 59 invitations for bids (IFBs), 46 requests for proposals (RFPs), 24 “special” procurements, 9 sole-source solicitations, 1 RFQ for construction, 4 piggyback agreements, 2 emergency procurements and 24 cancellations. The department reported 58 procurements completed in that window and said it had processed roughly 21,000–22,000 purchase orders at an approxiate spend of $2.1 billion.

Houston gave the committee detailed cycle-time figures: RFPs averaged about 385 days, IFBs about 332 days, and the combined RFP/IFB average was about 355 days. By contrast, alternative procurement methods averaged roughly 130 days. She noted one completed sole-source procurement took 256 days and that emergency procurements averaged 89 days in the sample period.

“We are really still at about 355 average days to complete RFPs and IFBs,” Houston said, adding that a task force report — the Advancing Procurement Task Force — and agency feedback helped shape the planned restructuring. The new structure establishes five teams: a strategy team for preplanning and RFIs; a performance/metrics team to do market research and supplier performance tracking; an implementation (sourcing) team to execute solicitations; an operations team to handle small and micro purchases and purchase-order processing; and a matrix team to partner with operating departments on scopes and monitoring.

Houston said the department will overhaul solicitation templates to remove forms that suppliers should only complete after award, institute supplier post-award debriefs and improve contract-expiration tracking in Oracle so agencies are notified in advance of expirations. She said DOP is working with Deloitte and with the administration to automate parts of the contract workflow in Oracle so contracts need not be removed from the system during signature and upload steps.

Committee members pressed for targets and faster timelines. Councilmember Juan Bactieri said the numbers were “eye popping” and warned that “a year to finish a procurement is essentially a handcuff on the city,” expressing concern that long timelines incentivize departments to use cooperative purchasing and other workarounds rather than full competitive processes. Bactieri asked why a sole-source procurement took 256 days; Houston said that procurement predated a recently introduced “no exceptions contracting” process and required multiple law iterations.

Councilmember Overstreet urged benchmarking against nearby jurisdictions and supported creating performance targets. “We definitely need some type of benchmark,” she said. Councilmember Ramos asked whether DOP would set a consistent cadence for issuing solicitations and prevent situations where deadlines fall before holidays or where long addendum periods compress vendor response windows; Houston said cadence and response-time practices would be part of the new process.

Houston said the department has begun team training and aims to roll out the new model in early August (she referenced the date in the presentation). She told the committee DOP will develop metrics (about 13 initially), report most metrics monthly, and benchmark against peer jurisdictions before setting formal cycle-time targets. Houston also announced a refresh of atlsupplier.com and promised more training for agencies and suppliers.

Committee members repeatedly emphasized the operational consequences of extended cycle times: month-to-month contract extensions, delayed infrastructure and maintenance work, and slowed emergency response. Several asked DOP to move up contract-expiration conversations from six months to as much as 18 months before expiration while the reforms take effect.

Houston identified causes for long cycles including unclear scopes that generate large volumes of vendor questions, misalignment of roles between DOP and user agencies, antiquated solicitation templates and inconsistent contract management. She said the strategy team will conduct RFIs and market research to reduce addenda and shorten solicitation Q&A periods.

The committee did not take a formal vote on the procurement plan during the session. Houston described the items above as a departmental rollout and implementation plan rather than a council ordinance.

Ending: Houston invited questions and promised follow-up information including an org chart, staffing counts, the leadership flowchart for the new teams, and the metrics set. Committee members agreed to continue oversight, asked for benchmarking and targets, and said they would revisit the department’s progress after the August rollout.