Committee accepts Division of Purchasing rules rewrite after detailed presentation and Q&A

Valerie Bollinger, Administrator of the Division of Purchasing in the Department of Administration, presented a comprehensive rewrite of the division’s purchasing rules and asked the committee to accept the pending docket.

"The legislature voted last year to reject several of the rules in IDAPA 30.85.01 in order to eliminate the invitation to negotiate or ITN process," Bollinger told the committee, adding the division removed the ITN process from rule and worked to align rules with statutory authority. She said the rewrite also reorganizes and clarifies language, removes unnecessary restatements of statute, and narrows certain exceptions.

Committee members asked detailed questions about multiple items. On exemptions from competition, Bollinger gave an example from the Department of Fish and Game: after wildfires, the agency may need to buy hay quickly so wildlife do not cross roadways, "primarily for human safety reasons," and in those cases agencies typically obtain quotes but not the full formal process.

Members also pressed the division about several other substantive changes Bollinger described:

- Competitive negotiation: the committee-aligned rewrite removes the definition and the separate competitive-negotiation rule, consistent with the prior-session rejection of that rule; Bollinger said solicitation processes remain competitive by definition.

- Bid openings: the rule language referencing public bid openings was removed from the draft because that requirement exists in statute; Bollinger said the change is not intended to eliminate public opening practice and that the draft brings the rule back to a default of in-person public openings where statute requires them.

- Award criteria and expertise: language listing certain responsibility criteria was narrowed; Bollinger said expertise is typically evaluated in RFP scoring and that the statutory concept of the "lowest responsible bidder" continues to allow scoring-based selection where quality matters.

- Negotiations and safeguards: Bollinger said discussions or negotiations with an apparent successful vendor remain an important tool; the division requires administrator approval to enter negotiations and noted there are remedies for vendors (appeals and, under a recent change, judicial review) if procurement errors occur.

- Brand-name specifications: the rewrite clarifies when a solicitation may use "brand name or equal" and when a brand-name-only specification requires administrator approval. Bollinger said an agency that limits procurement to a single brand must justify a business need to the administrator.

Committee members asked about how often procurements are challenged; Bollinger said the division had about "5 or 6" challenges in the last year and that the division either corrects errors or cancels and re-bids when warranted. Bollinger also described the division’s staff size as "18 or 19" employees covering procurement, contract administration, training, business analysis and support.

Representative Vito Barbieri moved to accept the pending docket as presented; the committee voted by voice and the chair declared the motion carried.

Bollinger provided a crosswalk document linking rule changes to Idaho code and said the division engaged in negotiated rulemaking, public meetings and a formal public hearing, receiving questions but no formal written comments. The committee’s acceptance advances the rules rewrite to the next step in the administrative process; it does not itself change statute.

Notations in the transcript show multiple slightly different docket numbers as read aloud; the division’s written materials submitted to the committee identify the pending rules as the Division of Purchasing chapter rewrite in the Department of Administration’s pending-rule packet.