Kodiak Borough moves to activate Sourcewell purchasing to cut costs

The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly reached consensus Thursday to start using a Sourcewell cooperative purchasing account the borough already held but had not previously activated, a decision that could reduce costs on certain purchases and eliminate hours of staff time spent on bidding processes that Sourcewell had already completed.

Cody Anderson, the borough's Engineering and Facilities Director, presented real-world comparisons to illustrate the potential savings. The borough paid $49,074 for a truck after a 30-day procurement process that consumed roughly seven hours of staff time; Sourcewell pricing would have saved $6,836 on the purchase price alone. On the smaller end, the borough bought weed eaters locally for $845 each, and Sourcewell would have saved $221 per unit on the identical item from the same vendor.

Anderson said staff had previously been told not to use Sourcewell because it was not considered a competitive procurement method, but after reviewing the program more closely he concluded it aligned with the borough's procurement practices. Alaska statute explicitly permits public procurement units to use cooperative purchasing agreements, and Sourcewell's contracts are competitively bid through a request-for-proposal process. Anderson noted the borough also holds a NASPO ValuePoint account, which it has used in the past. Local preference rules will still apply; staff will solicit local quotes and apply the 10 percent local preference before any Sourcewell purchase.

Assembly Member Zac Johnson was direct about the prior practice. "It's kind of appalling that Sourcewell wasn't being used before," Johnson said. He also questioned whether separate assembly procurement votes should still be required for budget-approved items purchased through negotiated contracts: "The bidding's already been done. We've already approved it, right? I would like the assembly to reconsider a budgetary— a budget-approved item through a negotiated procurement contract has already met all the requirements of that purchase. Just seems like unnecessary bureaucracy to me."

Assembly Member Bo Whiteside pointed to the hidden cost of staff time: "How many people, you know, 7 hours of staff time, how much did that cost us in salaries and benefits just for that procurement item for a weed whacker? Probably more than the weed whacker cost itself, I can assure you that." Assembly Member Jeff Woods agreed: "This seems like a total no-brainer to me. It's efficient. It's kind of scary that we're actually looking at efficiency to me a little bit."

Mayor closed the discussion: "It sounds like there's consensus to move forward with it."