Queen Creek Town Council approves temporary policy change in response to supply chain issues
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“It's been tough to find three vendors that have the same thing. By the time you get the third quote you go back to the person that has the lowest price and they don't have the items in stock anymore.””
Supply chain issues have been causing problems for businesses and towns across the country. In response, Queen Creek has instituted a temporary measure that will raise the dollar amount of some contracts town managers can approve, as well as allowing one-bid contracts.
The council unanimously approved the move, which immediately went into effect. It applies only to critical infrastructure and public safety needs.
“I think all of us understand the supply chain issues that are affecting almost all industries. I do appreciate that it is clearly denoted in the resolution that this is for critical infrastructure and public safety,” said Councilor Emilena Turley. “I do see the need and it’s actually the most responsible thing to do to get what we need to get.”
Councilor Jeff Brown added he “would normally never go for something like this. Often the best way to proceed is with caution to slow things down rather than speed things up.”
However, Brown said he supported the measure because it was temporary and there would be a degree of transparency to the purchases.
The policy change was approved at the council’s Nov. 17 meeting. The policy change will be in place until June 30, 2022.
“Our policy was $25,000 for staff, and what we recommended is that for the critical infrastructure components and public safety materials that the amount be raised up to $50,000,” said Dan Olsen, the town's deputy finance director. “For example, if Police Chief (Randy) Brice needs to go buy $30,000 worth of ammunition he could just do that without having to get on a council agenda and wait for however long it takes to get to the council meeting.”
Olsen said there was no one major event that sparked the temporary policy change, but rather an accumulation of incidents.
“In our traffic area, they needed to get some control boxes and pull boxes and some other materials, and they went to the vendor we normally go to and the vendor only had like two or three and we needed a lot more than that, but we had to buy what we could at the time,” Olsen said. “Another example would be computers for IT. We took an action to council a month ago to approve some purchases of IT equipment, some, computers and servers and other IT stuff, and by the time the council approved that purchase we went back to the vendor and the vendor said. ‘Well, I don't have those anymore. I’m all out.’ So, we had to go to a different vendor. This has started to impact our ability to get materials on a timely basis.”
Under the temporary measure, town managers also can forgo the usual three-quote process so the town can get what it needs as soon as it is available.
“It's been tough to find three vendors that have the same thing. By the time you get the third quote you go back to the person that has the lowest price and they don't have the items in stock anymore,” Olsen said. “The change in allowing us to not require three quotes will really help us react a lot more quickly to purchase the things that we need right away rather than trying to comply with this policy that requires us to get three quotes. And again, this is this is only temporary and limited to emergency services and critical infrastructure.”
Olsen said the town first started seeing supply chain hiccups last spring when a vendor informed the town it could not deliver all the vehicles the new Queen Creek Police Department had purchased.
“We had to go to a different vendor and buy what they had in stock,” he said. “So, May was probably when we started to feel the real pinch for vehicles. The other materials have been more recent, like September for traffic control or IT. That's when we started noticing these longer lead times to get the materials that we need.”
In addition, the change in policy will bring greater accountability for the purchases made outside of the regular process. Staff will supply council with a monthly summary report that will list the items purchased, the dollar amount and method of procurement.
“Our intent is to go back to the council in May 2022 to give them an update on how this is working and either make a recommendation to extend it or change it or just allow it to expire.," Olsen said. "But we are planning to keep our eyes on supply chain issues and report back to [council] every month on the items that we did purchase that fell under these exceptions.”
So far, the town has not calculated how much these supply chain issues have cost the town in terms of opportunities missed or having to pay more for supplies.
“I don't think we could quantify it. I think for us right now it's just an issue of time,” Olsen said. “If we can't get materials, that delays the work that we're trying to do, but we've not as yet made any attempt to quantify those opportunity costs or losses.”
Janet Perez News Editor | Queen Creek &
San Tan Valley @AzNewsmedia
Meet Janet Janet Perez joined Independent Newsmedia as editor of the Queen Creek Independent and Florence Independent in 2020. She started her career in 1989 with the Gannett-owned El Paso Times. In 1992, she moved to Tempe and has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio and television. She left Arizona for three years to work at New Mexico State University and Baylor University before returning to work at Arizona State University. Missing the business, she went back to journalism in 2017.
Community: A long-time pet owner, she supports animal welfare causes.
Education: University of Texas at El Paso with a BA in journalism and a minor in political science.
Random Fact: She had a head full of random facts.
Hobbies: Reading, watching documentaries, cooking and playing with her dogs.
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