At a May meeting of the Collier County Commission, D.M. Tidwell cited what he believed were a number of deficiencies in county practices for purchasing office furniture. Speaking on behalf of a Marco Island office supply firm that now employs him, Tidwell claimed the county purchasing department paid excessive prices for office furniture, refused to consider his employer’s competitive bid, wasted money for outside design services, etc. The claims were reported on by the media.
The county commissioners requested that the county Government Productivity Committee undertake a priority review of Tidwell’s various criticisms, which we completed last week. After a detailed study of both sides of the dispute, we concluded that the county has a sound approach to planning and acquiring office furniture that is consistent with widely established practices of government and business. There is no evidence of malfeasance by staff or suppliers, nor is there evidence of gross waste of county funds. Therefore, the Productivity Committee anticipates no further involvement in this vendor protest. Our findings are elaborated on below.
Purchasing strategy and policy
To put Tidwell’s criticisms in context, it is necessary to understand the current county policy for purchasing office furniture. The county commission established the standards for the office furniture through a deliberate and competitive process and selected two companies, Herman Miller and Steelcase, as primary suppliers. Advantages of focusing on a limited number of suppliers include:
Consistent office furnishings throughout county government facilitates interchange of furniture between departments and divisions due to reorganizations or new and reconfigured buildings. Examples of savings in recent projects were cited.
Standardization reduces the staffing required to purchase office furniture.
Due to an umbrella purchasing agreement negotiated by the state, prices paid by Collier County for the selected furniture are the lowest available nationally and within the state.
The Collier County policy of a few suppliers is a mainstream management practice. Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota and Broward counties, as well as FGCU and others, use the same furniture brands at similar price points. Steelcase and Herman Miller are not the lowest-price brands, but they are ergonomically sound (an estimated 85 percent of the population will experience low back pain in their lifetimes) and come with longer term and/or broader warranties than brands sold on price emphasis.
The downsides of a county focus on a few brands is that it may generate resentment among local merchants who are not franchised to sell the equipment specified, vigilance is required to assure that the county obtains all the discounts and services that it should from long-term suppliers, and the potential for using newer and/or less-expensive brands may be undervalued. In my experience supervising an office purchasing department (as an element of my senior vice president of human resources and administration position at the Quaker Oats Co. in Chicago), the risks are manageable and are outweighed by the benefits of standardization.
Design services
Tidwell stated that he could provide office layout design services to the county for little or no fee. He retracted his offer of design services after learning that neither he, nor his employer, meets the professional licensing requirements for that activity under Florida law. In any event, prudent use of outside office layout design services is a reasonable and customary procedure that provides access to skills that are impractical to retain on county staff due to the specialized and periodic nature of the work. Also, an independent viewpoint can be helpful to avoid pressure from departments for more or better furniture than the county standard.
The glass reception desk
Much attention has focused on a $10,000 glass reception unit sitting in a warehouse. We now know that the unit was purchased last year for installation in a public area of the new Emergency Operations Center. Perhaps a modest premium was paid to achieve aesthetic goals, but economic pressures will undoubtedly result in a more utilitarian approach going forward. Evidence that a frugal mind-set is now in place are efforts reported by staff to redeploy substantial amounts of existing furniture to new facilities and a variety of expense-reduction initiatives incorporated in the budgets now under development.
Conclusion
The Productivity Committee consists of 12 appointed volunteers with several hundred years experience in government, business and management consulting. Historically we have not been hesitant to flag deficiencies in county practices when observed. However, the committee does not concur with the substance of Tidwell’s claims of broad mismanagement in county office-furniture purchasing.
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