NEWS NEEDED AND SHARED

Cynthia Duprey-City of South Gate
The city is not going to be doing their own street sweeping anymore. In what they hope will be a cost cutting measure they are going to subcontract their street sweeping. They just recently purchased a new sweeper that will become available for sale.

Nancy Pickard-City of Fullerton
Nancy brought her buyer, Margot, to the meeting. It is always good to see new faces.

Felice Fromm-City of Torrance
The Purchasing Department has been evolving for the last several years, once working under General Services and now under the Finance Department. They are now to get more involve with Public Works and the various contracts all that involves. The actual extent of involvement is to be determined.

Their Transit Director recently passed away. They are still implementing their Cal-Card program. The pilot program involved both the Police and the Parks departments

Joe Sandoval-County of Los Angeles
Joe is working with several agencies throughout the country in putting together a new National Office Supply contract. The contract should hit the streets approximately June 15th and close August 17th. Joe will meet with the team to evaluate the responses and award the contract.

Joe has also been working with the City of Los Angeles and Ventura County over the last several years on high quality Fire Department apparel. Joe is also responsible for the golf outing that will be held in conjunction with the upcoming NIGP yearly convention being held at the Anaheim Convention Center July 30th thru August 3rd, 2005. Contact Joe if you plan on playing golf during the NIGP convention.

Christine Roberto-City of Norwalk
Her city uses the Cal-card and the program is very successful. All office supplies are now being purchased with credit cards. They have 30 Cal-card users presently in their system.

The city has also placed all new copiers though out the city. They were purchased using the COLA contract pricing.

Bill Gelman-City of Brea
The city's finances seem to be looking up. Has placed new copiers through out the city, piggybacking onto a County of San Bernardino contract. The Brea purchasing department is somewhat involved in Public Works contracts, but nothing large like new buildings or street projects.

Matt Weintraub/Ralph Nunez-City of El Monte
Matt introduced Ralph as his replacement in the purchasing area. Matt wears several hats for the city and will be more involved in public information; this involvement became an opportunity for Ralph.

Matt is unhappy with the response and availability of accessories from the vendor who is supplying the city with shotguns and handguns. They also need to purchase some new police vehicles. Cynthia Duprey mentioned she had recently purchased 21 vehicles and received very good pricing, better than CMAS. She shared the vendor with everyone in attendance, but if you want the information, please contact Cynthia.

Beverly Carr-City of Inglewood
The city is offering some nice incentives for early retirement.

NO MEETING IN JULY NEXT MEETING IS AUGUST 3RD IN LAKEWOOD We will have a guest speaker: Mr. Steve Anthony of Sempra Utilities. He will discuss what goes into the pricing of gasoline, how it gets to the consumer etc. Should be very interesting; try to bring a guest for this meeting/presentation.