The Mayor's Mixtape
Mayor Heather Graham's weekly brief of current events related to the City of Pueblo.
The Mayor's Mixtape
The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 19
Mayor Graham hosts Director of Purchasing Naomi Hedden to talk about the request for proposal (RFP) process with the City of Pueblo. Naomi explains how bids are done with the City and the responsibilities of the Purchasing Department. Mayor Graham also discusses the future of the City and Regional Building's relationship moving forward.
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All right, welcome to the 19th episode of the Mayor's Mixtape. My name is Haley Sue Robinson, director of Public Affairs City of Pueblo, mayor Heather Graham, and today we also have a guest, our Purchasing Director, naomi Hedden. Before we jump in with her, I'd like to remind you we're available on YouTube, apple, spotify, buzzsprout, and we also have this podcast available on local channel 17. So there are lots of opportunities to listen to this podcast. And don't forget, if you have questions or want to suggest a topic for Mayor Graham to cover, you can email us at mayor at pueblous. Now we're going to welcome to the show Naomi. Good morning,
Naomi Hedden:Good morning. How are you?
Haley Sue Robinson:Great. Thanks so much for joining us today. We are here to talk about purchasing, so we want you to walk us through some of the the nuts and bolts of how purchasing works? What does the RFP process look like, and how does the city determine how bids are awarded?
Naomi Hedden:I could write a book. I bet you could. I probably already have. The RFP process is we have RFPs and IFBs and the RFPs are requests for proposal for professional services. The IFB is more for like construction projects. The difference is RFPs are awarded based on evaluations and what will benefit the city. The best IFBs are based mostly on price, but responsiveness and responsibleness of the best IFBs are based mostly on price, but responsiveness and responsibleness of the vendors and the contractors.
Mayor Heather Graham:We hear it called like lowest and best bid a lot of the times right.
Naomi Hedden:That is true, but that's only for construction and for equipment any commodity. Once in a while for a fire truck, we'll use an RFP process because it's more than just low price. So that's kind of an antiquated Sure. We really should be going more for best value rather than best price. That sounds better.
Mayor Heather Graham:That'll be in the new version of the policy.
Haley Sue Robinson:The new book. You're writing the new book. Okay, naomi. What's the threshold for when or how the city uses an RFP, like what determines why would we go out for bid rather than just purchasing something? I will tell you that sorry.
Naomi Hedden:The current threshold is very antiquated. It will be changing in the new book. Right now it's anything under $1,000 does not have to be bid. We just ask that they use their best judgment. Anything between $1,000 and $10,000 can be informally bid through. The departments can do that. Anything over $10,000, I can be judge of whether or not we can do informal up to $15,000 and then it's bid formally.
Haley Sue Robinson:So when you say that the departments can use their discretion, what does that mean? Like they have to get different quotes, or how does that process look if it's under $10,000?
Naomi Hedden:Under $1,000. Oh, under $1,000. I mean nothing is you can't get a good stapler for under $1,000. Serious. But we just ask that you know. Consider your budget, okay, and if you find some chairs, staples, go look at Amazon and Office Depot or something to see if you're truly getting your best value.
Haley Sue Robinson:So you're doing a price comparison.
Naomi Hedden:Yeah, I mean they don't always. Sometimes they go to somebody that they've used before and they've been pleased with their service.
Haley Sue Robinson:So, okay, you know, one thing we hear a lot is about the RFP process that you know, maybe, like the mayor or the department heads pick their favorite contractor, or they pick their favorite person to work with, how much are you involved in the RFP process, Mayor?
Mayor Heather Graham:None, I've only ever sat on one or even ever opened up one set of bid documents, and it was for the shelter.
Haley Sue Robinson:That's the only process you've been part of Uh-huh Interesting Okay. So then what does that review process look like, Naomi so?
Naomi Hedden:I'm big on following rules.
Haley Sue Robinson:You're the rule lady.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, there's other titles but we'll. We'll stick with that one. We'll stick with that one, okay.
Naomi Hedden:But in an RFP process we will have the department or the project manager select their evaluation committee Okay. And then they go through all of the proposals and they select the best value based on scoring. So we have a scoring sheet in OpenGov, because I need to mention that all of our bids are open electronically now, oh okay, which has saved us so much time.
Haley Sue Robinson:And trees, yeah, and trees, headache trees yeah, it used to be All the filing and paperwork of having to print everything.
Naomi Hedden:Yeah, so we've gone electronic on everything. That's amazing, and we can find any kind of document from the time I started in 98.
Haley Sue Robinson:Wow. So, you know one thing. Um, we also saw in some of maybe the the more recent RFPs that folks have followed. Is there's a process where you invite the folks to come and ask questions, like I know we did that with an art installation process or we even did it with the RFP for the shelter. What does that look like for folks who might be interested in bidding on a project?
Naomi Hedden:So every solicitation has time for questions and within the OpenGov it has a place that vendors that are registered can go in and ask any question they want and they have a certain date, a cutoff date. We get answers for them. For example, I believe it was the boathouse or maybe the fire stations. There were like 350 questions and we went through every one of those and made sure 350? 350. So we had to work with the project manager and the architects to get the correct answers.
Haley Sue Robinson:That sounds like a lot of back and forth, maybe.
Naomi Hedden:It is, and a lot of the questions were repetition, sure, but we made sure that between us and the project managers and the architects, they all got resolved and people were happy.
Haley Sue Robinson:So it's a pretty thorough process it is a very thorough process.
Naomi Hedden:Sometimes the vendors they don't like the fact that I reject their bids because they are nonresponsive. That being, I mean our bids are clear and if you can read it's pretty, you know, you can understand and we have questions or phone numbers, areas that they can send us questions directly. They can call us through the whole process and we will take them by the hand and lead them through it. But if they don't do it, that's on them.
Haley Sue Robinson:Which is then why they get rejected.
Naomi Hedden:That's why they get rejected and we've even given sometimes opportunities to fix that if it's in the city's best interest, as long as we're not touching the price or anything like that, or their project approach.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, and is there always the same time frame for every bid?
Naomi Hedden:Not necessarily Right now. Our standard is three weeks from the date that it's posted to the date that it's opened. Sometimes, if it's a complicated bid, then we will extend it, but they have to give us a good reason to extend it and it has to be during the question time period.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, so then once we open a bid, what's kind of normally the time frame before, let's say we see it on an agenda at city council for approval? Let's say, we see it on an agenda at city council for approval.
Naomi Hedden:That's it just depends. Could be a couple months Could be. I mean, if it's, if they have the money, if the departments have gone through the correct process, made sure that before they put it out to bid, the money was available, we could have it on the agenda within a couple weeks, and then it's, and then it's awarded. So some of these projects can be awarded quickly. It just depends on the department head and the project manager, and you know how they're handling their process.
Haley Sue Robinson:Everybody having their ducks in a row, exactly.
Naomi Hedden:That's what we try to tell them from the get-go Okay, do it right and we'll be right on it. It doesn't have to be. I understand that there are some communities that take up to six months. We couldn't believe. I was at a conference many years ago for transit in Dade County, florida and they said that the council had to review every single proposal. Nuts and bolts literal nuts and bolts to be awarded could take up to six months. Can you imagine if we did that?
Mayor Heather Graham:Can you imagine?
Naomi Hedden:So we make sure.
Mayor Heather Graham:That would take a long, very long time.
Haley Sue Robinson:We'd be at council every night till 2 am.
Naomi Hedden:We would, yeah, so we don't do that. We make sure that we get it through as quickly and thoroughly as possible, because we do a lot of bids and a lot of RFPs.
Mayor Heather Graham:What do you think we do a year? How many projects do you bid out?
Naomi Hedden:I think last year we were up to 160.
Haley Sue Robinson:That's a lot Across all the departments.
Naomi Hedden:Yes, and that wasn't. We didn't start putting the informal bids into OpenGov and giving them numbers until last year. So prior to that, it was even before that we had in 23,. We had, I believe, 130 or 140 bids, and that was without all of the informals. But now that the money is kind of dropping off a little bit, I'm sure that that's going to go away also. But when it is federal money there's a lot more involvement. We have to make sure that the vendors are in compliance. There's a lot more rules, so all my staff has to know the federal. So it's not just a matter of write a bid. When I first started, we actually had mimeograph I'm aging myself Mimeograph fill-in sheets and that was the way it was bid out. Nothing was, you know, they stapled a scope of work and now it is a complicated process, but it's. It's an easy process for those that truly want to learn Sure, and we're willing to teach them.
Haley Sue Robinson:How about um? Can we use the same contractor more than once within the city? I know that's one thing that a lot of folks ask, like I mean. I mean, I know the answer, but how are we able to use a contractor more than once for a project?
Naomi Hedden:If it's for construction and they come in lowest and best bid, we're going to use them. I mean they could have five projects in a row. However, we do encourage them. If they have that many, they need to make sure that they have the backing and the finances to have the bonds. You know they're smaller projects. We have run into a few contractors that kind of stack them up because they come in too low and then they can't finish any of them. So then we do bar them.
Haley Sue Robinson:So you have a way of taking care of that, yeah.
Naomi Hedden:If they're not doing a good job and the department heads document, then they're out.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, and I think another thing that is pretty surprising to a lot of folks is how many, how many people are in purchasing. How large is your department, naomi two?
Naomi Hedden:feels like that sometimes. Sure, I have four full-time employees. There's myself, two contract and purchasing administrators, purchasing specialists. I have two part-timers who have been with me, for one of them has been with me for 22 years.
Haley Sue Robinson:Oh, wow.
Naomi Hedden:And she, just she doesn't want to go full-time. So, and I have a messenger, so seven.
Haley Sue Robinson:For the whole department, For the whole department and also outside of the RFP process. What else does the purchasing department handle? You mentioned the messenger.
Naomi Hedden:The messenger is through our office. We handle any equipment within the city that is obsolete, sell things through auction, whether it's equipment, monitors, fire trucks, vehicles, just about anything that is. I mean down to erasers that have been in the warehouse for 20 years. If somebody wants to buy them, they sure can, so we run the auction. Somebody wants to buy them? They sure can, so we run the auction. We also are the P-card or the credit card administrators, so any credit cards, any fraud that goes through, we manage that. Gosh, I forget some of the things that we do, but but you, essentially you touch every department.
Haley Sue Robinson:Purchasing touches every department in the city.
Naomi Hedden:And we do the training also for the departments that get new employees. We run them through the process, our accounting, the entry, we teach them how to do that. So my two people, the two contract administrators, they do a lot, they are on top of things.
Haley Sue Robinson:It sounds like it.
Naomi Hedden:And we should have fire uniforms, because we're putting out fires all the time.
Haley Sue Robinson:Maybe we'll talk to Chief Huber about that. Can't get one, she might be open to it. You think, yeah, we could ask Anything else that we should know about the purchasing department. Naomi.
Naomi Hedden:No, if anybody has questions, they can come into our office. They can send me an email at purchasing at pueblous and we will answer and help them.
Haley Sue Robinson:vendors so it's pretty easy process kind of open door policy, very available and always. If it seems confusing, you can answer our questions yes, and if they don't know who to call?
Naomi Hedden:in the city we get those questions on a daily basis. I don't know how our phone number is out there, but people just call us.
Haley Sue Robinson:I think that is just like a rule for the city. Maybe, regardless of department, we get questions of can you help with this? And maybe it's city-related business and we give it to somebody else, and other times it's not city-related business and we say we don't know the answer, but we're going to help you find it. Yep, that's. I feel like that's kind of part of being a public servant. It is well. Thank you for joining us today, naomi. We appreciate it.
Naomi Hedden:Thank you for having me
Haley Sue Robinson:and we'll be sure to share the information about the purchasing department so that you can find out more. If you want to be a registered vendor or you have questions, we'll be sure to put that in the notes for the podcast and in the caption on facebook as well okay, give us a call, send us an email and we'll be there.
Haley Sue Robinson:Thank you all right, thank you thanks okay, um, that was great to have Naomi answer a couple questions about the RFP process and what purchasing looks like. I know we get a lot of those questions during the city council meeting and we see a lot of them in the comments. Or people just call and ask hey, how do I start the process of doing business with the city? So that was great.
Mayor Heather Graham:It it was,
Haley Sue Robinson:Mayor. Last week you put out a statement or we put out a press release about the city's intention to have a relationship with regional building moving forward, given the vote with the county commissioners of the future of regional building. Now what does that look like for the city?
Mayor Heather Graham:We were officially served by the county, I think last Thursday or Friday. So now the city is going to be working to renegotiate the IGA with regional buildings, so we will continue our relationship moving forward with them.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay. So the county's intention is to start a building department and our intention is to continue with the regional building and not bring it internal, have a round department, okay. Okay, I know one thing that you've mentioned quite a bit through. You know, whether it be access permits with CDOT, or you know our relationship with some of the hotels that you and your staff meet regularly with regional building.
Mayor Heather Graham:What does that look like? We have a compliance meeting. We meet the first Wednesday of every month with all of the departments that are involved in routing regional building, health department, and right now we're really focused on hotels and lodging to make sure that people have their correct lodging licensing and they've been inspected and they are able to have guests in their facilities. With what we saw with the really bad two hotels, we've really been focusing on other hotels now making sure that everybody's up to par. So whenever we have an issue hotel related or business related or development related, we have a sit down with regional to see what steps need to be taken to process their permits more quickly or remove somebody's permit. So we work pretty closely with regional building to do all that.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, and I know that you were a big part of that process as far as the lodging and with hotels, but what made you start the actual group that met monthly?
Mayor Heather Graham:I think it was because there wasn't a lot of communication prior and departments and entities were working in silos, and so, to be beneficial for everybody, it was good to have, you know, this monthly meeting it's it's a several hour meeting that we sit down and go through different businesses or hotels or licensing um to make sure that people are doing what they're supposed to be doing, cause when people come into our community, they are entrusting the government um to regulate whatever kind of a business it is, and so.
Mayor Heather Graham:I think that that's really important to have those relationships, um, and make sure that you're having the communication that needs to happen. We currently work through different software programs between everybody, and so at times it can be difficult to if something is held up where it's held up, why it's held up. You don't. You don't just walk into a department and get your routing sheet signed off anymore, it's all done electronically. So it's important to still have those face-to-face conversations.
Haley Sue Robinson:But then that gives you the opportunity to maybe get a background of why something has been held up or what the issue may be and correct me if I'm wrong some of the folks that are involved. That includes the health department, the fire department, regional building, um, who else internally?
Mayor Heather Graham:Planning, Public works. ADA, Sales tax, Finance um Law.
Haley Sue Robinson:So it's a. It's a pretty extensive group that meets yeah.
Mayor Heather Graham:PD code enforcement um anybody that touches any kind of licensing within the city got it okay um, I also know that, uh, a group was part of a routing retreat back in april.
Haley Sue Robinson:What exactly um was the purpose of that retreat, or or why were we?
Mayor Heather Graham:having this. I think it was to better the communication. It was something that regional building wanted to put forward to have the city and the county and regional building all at the table at the same time to voice concerns that we have with each other or we have with software or systems or policy and procedure that they just don't feel is working the most effective and efficient way for the consumer. So we had a decent retreat in which we went and spoke to those issues that we see within our respective governments and how you can solve those issues with just having better communication.
Haley Sue Robinson:Great, okay. So now that the city's been served by the county and the city's intention is to continue with regional building, what does it look like moving forward?
Mayor Heather Graham:So for the next six months, we'll be looking at the assets of regional building. Assets are determined by permitting, so currently the city sees about 60% of the permits and the county sees about 40% of the permits, and so we'll have to divide the assets up, figure out what the next steps are going to be as far as employees and try to have a seamless transition so that development doesn't come to a halt.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, so we'll see what happens over the next six months.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, I think I mean that's 12 city council meetings. Whatever contract agreement we come to, we'll have to pass two readings, Um, so we need to start working on it right now, which we? We've already been working on it since we were first notified that this could be a potential, just to make sure that we're staying ahead of it so that development doesn't stop in the city. Okay, great.
Haley Sue Robinson:So we will see more about this moving forward and then that IGA will be solidified in the coming months. Yep, okay, great. Anything else we should know about regional building? I don't think so. Okay, great, anything else we should know about regional building? I don't think so. Okay, great. I know we talked about some ballot measures for city council last night. We'll see some of those in July and moving forward. Kind of a weird time frame just because we have another work session on Monday and then we don't have another city council meeting for two weeks.
Mayor Heather Graham:So it's kind of that weird lull in the middle of the summer before we see more, more city council meetings yeah, they have to have two readings on any of their ballot measures and that needs to be done before the first week of September. So the last option to have anything on first reading would be the first week of September. So the last option to have anything on first reading would be the first meeting in August.
Haley Sue Robinson:Got it Okay, so we'll see that coming forward as well, potentially.
Mayor Heather Graham:Sure, yeah. So the city is also going to be proposing several ballot measures coming forward. So I think I'll be on the agenda in the next couple weeks Great Presenting my ballot measures to city council.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, wonderful, yeah, okay, well, I think that's all we have for today. Don't forget you can email mayor@ pueblo. us If you have questions or a topic suggestion for Mayor Graham to cover. You can find us on Apple, buzzsprout, spotify. You can also watch us on local Channel 17. And we'll see you next week.