Huddle Notes

March 10, 2020

In today’s Huddle, Melissa Denney, Director of Purchasing gave insight to the inner workings of the Purchasing department and the life of a purchase order.

Purchasing Mission: “To efficiently procure goods and services required for County operations utilizing ethical, cost-effective, and statutory methods”

Professional Buyers

• Uphold Procurement’s Code of Ethics, best practices and guiding principles
• Bridge the gap between suppliers and end users
• Utilize contracts to be good stewards of county monies

The Purchase Order Process

• From Department requisition to vendor issued a PO, there are 5 steps in creation
• Once a department enters the requisition, then the pricing research beings
• After finding the best source these documents move with the requisition for the auditor’s review
• Approved requisitions then change into purchase orders

90 Day MO Statute 50.660.1

• Purchases are coded by type and tracked to ensure $6000 threshold is not exceeded  
• Exceptions: single source, professional, emergency, contract
• Report maintained by purchasing to stay in compliance

Types of Purchases

• Open purchases/informal bids are all tracked for statute 50.660.01 compliance
• Single source means only a specific vendor can supply the product *ie: utilities
• Professional refers to services provided by a specific vendor *ie: attorney services
• Emergency procurement is excluded from the 90 day statute *ie broken water line
• Contract requires research and a formal bid process

These codes are attached at the time the purchase order is created by the professional buyer.

Three Levels of Buyer Expertise

Buyer I: purchases inventory items and other routine purchases

Buyer II: purchases more complex items such as for the Jail and Sherriff department

Buyer III: can monitor bids and fill in occasionally for the Director, including approval queue authority

Did you know?

• March is National Procurement month

• Our Purchasing Department staff have a combined over 76 years of public procurement experience

• Also our surplus property program has earned the county more than $1 million