Finance committee approves uniform purchasing via Sourcewell; staff to provide savings and compliance details

The Madison Finance Committee unanimously approved item 8 at its June 9 meeting, adopting a purchasing action to procure uniforms through the Sourcewell cooperative with vendor Galls.

Alder Rivera questioned whether Galls complies with the city's sweat-free purchase ordinance and asked whether using Sourcewell rather than a standalone RFP yielded monetary benefits. Dave, a city staff member on the call, replied that "from my understanding from purchasing staff is that, yes, they are in compliance." On savings, Dave said, "It was a monetary benefit... I don't have the specific numbers, but they wanted to renew at a much higher, price point. And we found we could get a better price through that, consortium. Purchasing staff contact you directly with the numbers." The committee recorded that purchasing staff will follow up with specific savings figures.

Rivera also asked whether the city intends to use a purchasing cooperative for the rental contract that covers police and fire uniforms. Dave said that decision "we don't know yet on that," and Rivera said she would follow up with purchasing staff, specifically Mary Richards, about past compliance concerns related to larger vendors. Rivera noted that Aramark and Cintas have "not been, very cooperative when it comes to the sweat free purchase ordinance" in past years.

A motion to adopt item 8 was moved and seconded; the committee recorded a unanimous vote in favor. No additional procurement details or dollar amounts were provided during the meeting; purchasing staff committed to provide specific cost comparisons and to answer follow-up questions offline.