Mayor’s efficiency study proposes $4 million Ernst & Young spend-implementation contract to pursue 5–15% savings

Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen David and Finance Department staff briefed the committee on the mayor’s efficiency study work stream focused on spend analysis, and previewed a live dashboard produced by Ernst & Young that groups three years of city spending into eight procurement categories and allows staff to drill down by vendor, purchase type and NIGP commodity code.

Key proposal: hiring outside help for implementation

City staff said they plan to ask council to approve a follow-on contract with Ernst & Young to perform spend implementation work and help the city execute category-management strategies. Officials estimated an implementation cost of approximately $4,000,000 and described a 12-month engagement that would front-load effort to identify rapid savings and renegotiate contracts; Ernst & Young estimated the implementation would require roughly 12,000–15,000 hours of work. The administration said municipalities that have moved to category management typically see 5%–15% cost savings once contracts and procurement processes are restructured.

What the dashboard shows

Finance showed an interactive dashboard that categorizes three years of spending (FY22–FY24) into eight categories (facilities & construction; industrial products & services; professional services; logistics & automotive; information & technology; management & operations; lifestyle & human services; medical). The dashboard flags noncontract spend, emergency purchase orders, and top vendors by dollar amounts, allowing procurement and department staff to target multi-department renegotiations and prepositioned or on-call contracts to reduce emergency, retail-price purchases during disasters.

Why it matters

Officials argued the “lowest-hanging fruit” is bringing noncontract spend onto contracts and consolidating duplicate contracts across departments—steps they said would reduce unit prices and administrative overhead. Staff also said the procurement cycle has shortened in recent months and that additional technology and staffing (category managers) will sit inside finance to maintain the dashboard and execute category-based negotiations.

Cost and timeline

The administration intends to present the contract amendment request to council in late March 2025. The proposed work plan showed a 12-month timeline of strategic sourcing, category management, procurement performance improvements and ongoing spend analytics. Officials told the committee the city already has tools (e.g., Ariba for contract monitoring) and will train city staff to run the dashboard after Ernst & Young transitions deliverables and trains internal teams.

Council questions

Council members sought clarification on timeline, staffing and whether the city would need new technology. Staff said the dashboard is part of the EY deliverable and that further investment will focus on human capital (category managers and subject-matter experts) and process change rather than large new software purchases. Council member questions also covered whether the expected savings can be realized quickly enough to inform the next budget cycle; staff said EY will be asked to front-load the effort to model near-term savings for budgeting purposes.

Ending

Committee members expressed broad support for the approach and asked staff to return with the formal contract action; no vote was taken at the meeting.