Procurement chief reports procedural upgrades, OpenGov rollout and surplus auctions

Brenda Campos, addressing the council, outlined a year of process improvements in parish procurement. She said the office processed 9,673 purchase orders in 2025, conducted 36 publicly advertised solicitations, and held four online surplus auctions that generated more than $106,000 in revenue.

"In 2025, our office processed 9,673 purchase orders and conducted 36 publicly advertised solicitations," Campos said, and described steps to centralize procurement, raise approval thresholds for certain purchases, update solicitation and contract templates with the legal department, and move to an OpenGov-based solicitation and contract-management workflow to improve transparency and deadlines.

Campos also explained the move to GovDeals for online auctions at no cost to the parish and noted that resolutions declaring items surplus will appear before council prior to auctions. Councilmembers asked technical questions about electronic bidding and records; Campos said most bidding is now centralized and that the full contract-management portion of OpenGov is targeted for parish-wide implementation by year-end.