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City purchasing manager outlines use of cooperatives, council asks for guardrails
Summary
Purchasing Manager Michael Lindley explained cooperative purchasing versus traditional bids, the effect of upcoming state threshold changes and recommended practices; council members asked staff to seek multiple cooperative solicitations for construction-type projects and to post list of commonly used cooperatives for local contractors.
Michael Lindley, the city's purchasing manager, gave a detailed presentation on procurement procedures, comparing traditional competitive bidding and cooperative purchasing agreements. He said the city currently requires council approval for contracts $50,000 and up but that Senate Bill 1173 will raise the threshold to $100,000 effective Sept. 1, 2025. Lindley described cooperatives such as BuyBoard, Sourcewell and DIR, and said cooperatives can reduce procurement time from months to weeks and offer aggregated purchasing power and pre-vetted vendors.
Council members pressed staff about how local contractors learn about cooperative contracts and whether cooperative pricing can be higher than a local bid on the same scope. Lindley said local contractors must register with cooperatives to be notified of opportunities and that staff can request bids outside a cooperative if cooperative pricing appears out of line. The mayor and several council members asked staff to adopt guardrails: for architect/engineer-led or construction projects, solicit vendors from multiple cooperative platforms (minimum two to three when feasible) so the city sees several price points.
Council requested that the city post a list of commonly used cooperatives and links on the Amarillo procurement/web pages to help local contractors sign up. Lindley said cooperatives produce standard contracts and the city supplements those with its form agreements, bonds and notice-to-proceed documents.
No formal vote was required; Council accepted the presentation and directed staff to return with a recommended policy for multi-cooperative solicitation on construction-type projects.
