NEWS NEEDED AND SHARED

The meeting was lightly attended this month. I hope everyone is well and we can count on a greater attendance next month.

Mike Hunter-City of Lakewood
Lakewood is preparing of an election next month that will see at least 40%, and possibly 60%, of the city council being turned over.

J. Richard Hogate-City of El Segundo
Quite a bit of his time is being consumed with risk management, liability insurance issues and a vehicle that the city had repaired due to a falling tree limb.

Robert Norman-City of Redondo Beach
Robert has his hands full as the city is revising their existing policies in regards to purchasing. Threshold limits etc are all being reviewed. Asked about piggyback opportunities for building supplies. Seems that most of the cities just go to the local home improvement store. Redondo is involved with the Cal-Card program and is happy with it.

Lastly, Robert has a need for a high pressure - power washer. If anyone has a suggested vendor, please contact Robert.

Christine Roberto-City of Norwalk The city is installing some new RCS software on their existing system. Norwalk has been awarded a grant for their Social Services program. Norwalk seems to be one of the few cities with a "full service" social services department.

Jan Steese-City of Arcadia
Arcadia is in the architectural drawing stages of a new fire station. They will be renting a house to relocate the station during the building process. Sounds like they have their work cut out for them. In two years, they will start the drawings for a new City Hall, projected to be a two-phase project, phase one being the City Hall; phase two being a Civic Center with a gym.

Joe Sandoval-Los Angels County (Guest of J. Richard Hogate)
Joe mentioned that his primary objective is to be more involved with the 88 cities serving the 10 million people in L.A. County. His department has 111 people in it, with a staff of 40 buyers. They have 870 commodity agreements in place worth approximately $1.3 billion. Also has 5 national contracts in place. Most of the agreements and contracts are piggybackable, but at this time there is no list. Call Joe at 323-267-2670 or e-mail Joe at jsandoval@isd.co.la.ca.us to find out about specific agreements. There is no administrative fee to piggyback.

Lastly he has a requisition in process for 37 Fire trucks

Cynthia Duprey-City of South Gate
Cynthia has a long time buyer (23 years) who is going to retire. South Gate also has a new Finance Director in place, seems to be very cooperative.

Cynthia purchased some police vehicles and did better that the state contract pricing. The company that has outfitted vehicles for her in the past with light bars and radios etc is no longer in business. Contact Cynthia for details. She asked about vendors for the leasing of heavy equipment. Anyone have any good vendors to recommend?

Lastly-her phone project. Going back several years, the city has incurred overcharges in the tens of thousands of dollars. They will most likely bring in an outside agent to audit the bills to insure accuracy of the total amount of overcharges. Again, contact Cynthia for more specifics.

Felice Fromm-City of Torrance
A big event in Torrance is an Armed Forces Parade on May 31st. This has also developed into an air show!!

Torrance has a Cal-Card pilot program started, 15 cards to start. The program will go city wide on July 1st. Mentioned that 2/3 of their requisitions are under $1,000.00. It was also mentioned that several cities use the merchant code of 000 (buy anything anywhere) but restrict the buyer with internal controls. As it was put "restrict alcohol, the buyer can not use the card at Ralphs"

Nancy Pickard-City of Fullerton
She is presently disposing of a fire truck thru an online auction service. At this point she likes the service. Contact Nancy for more details about online auction vendors.

OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE APRIL 6TH IN LAKEWOOD
U.S. COMMUNITIES WILL BE THE FEATURED SPEAKER IN APRIL.
HOPE TO SEE EVERYONE THERE.