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BuyBoard representative briefs Brookshire council on cooperative purchasing; city already has interlocal in place
Summary
A representative of BuyBoard, the purchasing cooperative overseen by the Texas Association of School Boards, presented cooperative purchasing benefits including competitive bidding, compliance coverage, and a vendor rebate program.
Vance Hamilton, a BuyBoard consultant, told the Brookshire City Council that BuyBoard is a purchasing cooperative administered by the Texas Association of School Boards that can reduce procurement time and provide competitive pricing and compliance coverage.
Hamilton described BuyBoard’s competitive-bid process and contract cycles, told the council the cooperative returns a small rebate to public entities (paid from vendor administrative fees), and noted the cooperative’s legal basis in state interlocal arrangements. “We competitively bid…we have several thousand vendors,” Hamilton said, and he added that the cooperative requires vendors to offer pricing at least as low as other cooperatives.
Hamilton told the council BuyBoard offers contracts for commodities and many services but advised that professional engineering or financial services are precluded by state law from cooperative purchase. He said the city already has a long-standing interlocal contract with BuyBoard. Council members asked how local vendors can register; Hamilton said the vendor must submit bids when a contract opportunity is advertised and that BuyBoard staff will assist local vendors to register and bid.
Hamilton also noted BuyBoard’s rebate program and provided examples of other services BuyBoard offers, such as energy cooperative contracts, fuel, facilities and cell‑service support. He committed to emailing the council’s staff a list of current awarded vendors and contract information.
