Jed Greenfield, head of strategic purchasing, told the committee the city has completed a citywide spend analysis and a seven‑category taxonomy to manage purchasing by category and identify savings opportunities. "We have gone through that part of the analysis, and we're now starting to look for where those opportunities will exist," Greenfield said.

Greenfield described seven master categories — including facilities/maintenance, public safety, public works, information technology, professional services and construction — and said early opportunities were concentrated in facilities management and in converting one‑off or noncontract purchases into negotiated contracts. He cited an Amazon purchasing contract the city brought to council that added negotiated pricing, a negotiated rebate from Amazon, a cooperative piggyback rebate and a third rebate from the city's payment card provider, creating a layered rebate structure that reduces net cost.

Melissa Dabowski said the budget assumed about $17.5 million in procurement savings for FY26 tied to the E&Y recommendations, and procurement staff emphasized that savings will accrue over multiple years as contracts are renegotiated and new multi‑year agreements come online. "It's gonna take us several fiscal years to get to the point where we... renegotiate and rebrought to council to realize those savings," Dabowski said.

Committee members asked about the timeline for reaching the budgeted savings, how reorganization and hiring freezes intersect with procurement gains, and how Ernst & Young will support department-level KPI work. Staff said the E&Y exercise was intended both to identify immediate savings and to teach the organization how to adopt continuous improvement; they estimated a clearer picture of multi‑year savings by roughly month 18 of the work.

Procurement staff also described internal actions: a master vendor list cleanup, assignment of category managers, a dashboard to track noncontract vs. contract spend, and prioritization of full‑service facility maintenance contracts where volume gives negotiating leverage. Staff said some categories (for example, professional engineering services procured by qualifications) may offer more limited price savings but still may generate operational efficiencies.

Council members asked for ongoing quarterly updates on E&Y and category‑management progress; staff said they will return with periodic reports and that reorganization work in some departments remains ongoing.