Too many vendors for Linn County, supervisor says

55 auto tire dealers. 24 for seed and fertilizer. 14 electrical contractors.

Linn County government buys goods and services from too many different companies, Supervisor Brent Oleson said, and could save money by settling on a few preferred vendors. The county buys from more than 3,000 companies, a number Oleson calls “startling.”

“There's no efficiencies,” Oleson said. “Everybody wants to protect their turf.”

He is pushing the Board of Supervisors to force all county departments - including Conservation, Public Health, and the Sheriff's, Recorder's, Auditor's, Treasurer's and County Attorney's Offices - to make all but a few of their purchases through the supervisors' Purchasing Department.

The county has a more than $100 million annual budget, and by consolidating the purchasing process, the county could get better bargains, Oleson said. Auditor Joel Miller agrees with him.

“We use a lot of vendors and we're not taking advantage of our size,” Miller said.

The supervisors passed a policy in 2004 that requires all purchases to go through the supervisors' purchasing department, but it exempts the departments run by autonomous boards and other elected officials. Those other departments account for 30 percent of the county's budget.

Britt Hutchins, the county's purchasing director, said buying in bulk brings discounts, and it can be a waste of time for someone in a department to research and purchase a specific item instead of allowing the centralized office to handle it. Some purchases from the departments of the elected officeholders run through the purchasing department, but many do not.

“There could be potential savings in there,” Hutchins said.

Often he knows about vendors and products already, and he is used to negotiating prices and terms. Sometimes, he said, the county and city purchasing departments join forces to push a company to improve its invoicing, or lower its prices.

“I can take that buying power from the county, and use it as leverage,” he said.

Oleson and Miller want to take away the exemptions for some county departments, and require them all to demonstrate the specific instances where they don't need to use the purchasing department to buy what they need.

Sheriff Brian Gardner, whose department often buys specialized equipment, objects. He has increased his office's involvement with the purchasing department “dramatically” since he took office in January, Hutchins said. Gardner agrees most purchases should go through the purchasing department, but thinks it is outside the supervisors' authority to force the issue.

“Once the board says, ‘Sheriff Gardner here's your budget,' then the public has to deal with me,” Gardner said. “If they don't like my response, don't think I'm doing my job, then they can vote me out in the next election.”

He and Hutchins said they are working together to be more efficient.