The County Line - Fall Issue 2003
Lessons Learned From County Joint
Bid Program
There's a line in a song from
my segment of rock'n'roll history that reads - "I
wish I didn't know now, what I didn't know then."
Boy does that fit like a glove right about now!
For year's we have given advice
on the state's bid law, but for the last four year's we've
gotten an up-close education that has allowed the ACCA
staff to learn a lot of things that we now wish we had
not learned.
It all started innocently enough,
during an ACCA steering committee a few years ago someone
kicked up the idea that counties should be allowed to
bid the purchase of items together, rather than all 67
counties doing the paper work and administrative details
necessary to conduct separate bids for the same product.
Great idea, we thought. The wheels started turning.
The legislation was simple
enough - in fact, it required the changing of less than
a dozen words in the Code of Alabama. The bill passed
on the House floor in less than two minutes. And following
the vote, the bill's sponsor - Rep. Skippy White of Escambia
County - joked that he would never handle another bill
for the Association because this one was so complicated
and difficult.
Well, if only he had known
the complication that would arise after his quick work,
he wouldn't have joked. Because those few simple words
have made a significant change in the way counties purchase
items AND in the things the Association staff does each
year.
On the ACCA web site, you can
now access the Alabama Joint Bid Program, which includes
a host of items from herbicide and motor graders to copy
paper and bathroom cleaner. County commissions from all
over the state can purchase these items without taking
a local bid, which saves staff time and administrative
expense. It has also generated some very competitive prices
because vendors know they have the possibility of selling
to ALL counties, not just one.
This joint bid process has
also been used to bid desktop computers on short notice
for small groups of counties, and later this year we expect
to use the process to bid the computer services necessary
to allow for businesses to pay sales taxes to counties
via the internet. Certainly in the years to come even
more positive applications will be uncovered.
But all these activities have
thrust the ACCA staff into a situation that has been a
"challenge" to county employees for years -
the Alabama bid law. It has been our pleasure to give
advice and counsel for years on actions that counties
should and should not take with regard to the Alabama
bid law. Such a posture is both at the same time difficult
and safe.
It is easy to tell someone
else - who is sitting every day in the courthouse - exactly
what they should do when vendors are complaining or when
they have noticed that one bidder was not notified of
the bid opening or when one bid package is delivered three
minutes after the bid opening has started. Again, it's
easy to sit in Montgomery and dole out advice and insight.
We now know what it is like
to face those questions not on the telephone, but right
in our back yard. And we now have a different appreciation
for what the Alabama bid law is about and the difficulty
it causes on a daily basis.
Don't get me wrong; the bid
law is needed and it does serve a very productive and
well-intended purpose. Alabama law should be written so
that government takes every step possible to be sure that
it makes purchases that utilizes public money to the best
possible extent.
However, the bid law in Alabama
was written decades ago and it has been amended scores
of times. Couple this piece-meal drafting with court decisions
and a bushel basket of opinions from the Alabama Attorney
General, and you have a situation that makes it difficult
to know whether you should scream bloody murder or throw
something across the room. There are times when both options
have appealed to the ACCA staff.
In the end, we have been very
proud of our accomplishment. The awarding of dozens of
contracts for items that counties need and can now purchase
at a competitive price is exactly the kind of thing the
Association should be doing. They say the things which
do not kill you make you stronger, and in this particular
process, that has certainly described our experience.
The involvement and commitment
of our members has also been a very gratifying part of
this process. County engineers and administrators from
all over the state have unselfishly given their own time
to work on bid specifications, review bids and assist
us in making sure this process works as well as possible.
And the Houston County Commission has served as the awarding
authority, meaning it has willingly agreed to keep the
paperwork necessary to allow the other counties to purchase
these items without doing their own bids.
Yep, we have "earned"
a new understanding of Alabama's bid law and we have "earned"
a new appreciation for those county commissioners, administrators,
engineers and attorneys who work every day to follow the
letter of the law while making purchases that produce
the best investment of county revenue.
In November we will open bids
for the 2004 Alabama Joint Bid Project. This will be the
program's fourth year of existence. The Houston County
Commission will approve the bid awards later in the month
and then contracts will be executed with each bidder.
On Jan. 1, 2004, the new items
will be available for purchase on the Association's web
site. Between now and then, the items from the 2003 program
will still be available for purchase. Sometime next summer
we will begin work on the 2005 version of the program
and we'll again face all those "challenges"
with our state's bid law.
By then, I hope to have a new
song bouncing around in my head.
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