Cooperative agreements can be a timesaver as public procurement workloads increase

No question, the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted public procurement workloads, says Ian Coyle, county administrator in Livingston County, N.Y. Coyle serves as chief administrative, budget and procurement officer for the county (population 65,000), which is in the Rochester, N.Y., metro area of the Empire State.

“The pandemic has affected all elements of local government operations. During declared states of emergencies at the state and local level, procurement regulations were at times relaxed to allow for emergency purchases, procurement policy overrides and other flexibility measures,” Coyle tells Co-op Solutions.

He says work volumes have intensified as the supply chain crisis developed during the pandemic. In addition, new and unique purchases such as COVID test kits and personal protective equipment orders flooded the in-boxes of government procurement offices. “Like many employment situations in the Great Reset or Great Resignation, the public procurement offices are not unscathed as it relates to impacts like staff retirements or departures or mental health stressors like burnout and fatigue,” Coyle explains.

Coyle believes cooperative procurement agreements have an important role in public purchasing departments. “Cooperative purchasing contracts are an excellent tool and can save money, time and staff resource efforts. The work has been done, so to speak, as in the heavy lifting of specifications, pre-approvals and other contractual conditions.” He notes that thousands of supplies, equipment items and other purchases are available to governments and other public entities under national, state, local and regional cooperative contracts. “It is a no-brainer for government procurement officials to exercise the tremendous benefit that cooperative purchasing affords their department and jurisdiction.”

He says Livingston County participates in numerous cooperative contracts. “These include Sourcewell, OMNIA Partners (formerly U.S. Communities), and New York State Office of General Services. In addition, the county is a party to some Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) contracts that involve regional school cooperatives as well.”

Coyle says there are several steps that forward-thinking local government administrators can take to ensure continuity and stability as public procurement professionals retire, move to the private sector or leave the profession. “They can develop succession plans to recruit replacements for their procurement team players. They can also focus on revising and updating job descriptions to reflect present responsibilities, as these specifications are often dated and woefully insufficient in terms of capturing the true scope of work for today’s government procurement positions.”

Local government, Coyle believes, should have a workforce that is reflective of the population served. “Too often that is not the case,” he adds. He says several techniques can be used to recruit more professionals from Black, Indigenous, people of color, women and other under-represented groups.

“Developing connections to public administration groups like the Local Government Hispanic Network and the National Forum for Black Public Administrators is a recommended best practice for all recruitments.” He adds that under-represented groups may not have access to key decision-makers, so actions like speaking and networking with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are crucial in recruiting. “Establishing mentorship and job shadowing programs for college students would be important steps to take to make these groups aware of opportunities,” Coyle adds.

Public officials need to cast a wide net as they work to mobilize future cadres of purchasing administrators, Coyle believes. “Governments should specifically focus on broader outreach efforts with all recruitments. The days of posting a position and waiting for people to apply are gone. Local government hiring agencies need to source, find and in some cases train and/or develop professionally the next generation of procurement leaders.”

He notes that there are several work fields and job categories where staffers tend to gravitate towards public procurement career paths, including administrative assistant, banking, accounting, finance and management spaces.

There’s no shortage of organizations that can aid in recruiting new professionals, Coyle says. Here are a few he suggests:

• ICMA is the world’s leading association of professional city and county managers and other employees who serve local governments.
• Municipal purchasing associations at the state level
• Local Government Hispanic Network
• National Forum for Black Public Administrators
• Colleges and universities
• Websites like LinkedIn

Coyle is cautiously optimistic as he surveys his county’s budgets and operations in the first quarter of 2022. “Sales tax and commerce activity in the county has rebounded, but of course inflation-impacted pricing is driving some of the uptick. We are hoping to get back to a renewed focus on community and economic development as well as broadband expansion efforts in Livingston County.”

He is confident about the economy’s performance in his county. “We remain hopeful about the local economy. In some ways we are insulated from the drastic up and down changes of major metros. Small business job creation, Main Street/downtown development, agribusiness, broadband expansion and outdoor recreation/tourism will be our major economic drivers in 2022.”

Michael Keating is senior editor for American City & County. Contact him at [email protected].