County procurement seeks vendor‑outreach coordinator, readies policies after state purchasing threshold change

The county purchasing director updated the court on procurement operations and asked for a new vendor outreach coordinator position to centralize vendor onboarding, reduce fraud risk and free buyers to focus on RFPs and cooperative purchasing.

Why it matters: Departments reported rising vendor onboarding workload, partly driven by social service and general assistance payments that require the procurement office to validate vendors before the county issues checks. That effort is time‑consuming and has grown as new, small or out‑of‑area vendors are used for assistance payments.

Key points from the June 24 presentation - New staff request: a dedicated vendor outreach coordinator to handle vendor onboarding and voice‑to‑voice verification for new and nonstandard vendors. The director said the new role would reduce workload pressure on current buyers, who are managing multiple RFPs plus onboarding and procurement operations. - Policy change and impacts: The director noted House Bill 1173 raised the formal competitive threshold from $50,000 to $100,000 (state law change effective Sept. 1). The office plans to update county purchasing policy and the purchasing‑card (P‑card) policy to reflect the new thresholds and better controls. - P‑card program: Procurement conducts monthly p‑card audits, enforces travel and sales‑tax recoveries, and noted monthly p‑card transaction counts vary from roughly 400 to 1,000 depending on month and fiscal year activity. Procurement also uses blanket purchase orders (BPOs) with vendors to reduce p‑card usage where appropriate. - Cooperative purchasing: An increase in contract services was requested to support cooperative buying through Region 18 and other purchasing cooperatives that departments use for printing and specialty services.

Operational notes and next steps The director said vendor onboarding can take hours or longer when the procurement office must confirm voice‑to‑voice account ownership, tax status and other validations to reduce fraud risk. The new coordinator would be the point person for those checks. Staff said they will present updated purchasing and P‑card policies to the auditors and seek court approval to implement changes by the state’s effective date in September.