As Elgin attorney Jeff Meyer took his seat on the Elgin Community College Board this week, one of the first topics he brought up was the college’s purchasing policies.
Meyer asked why some items were being purchased based on bids from just one company, and he joined at least two other board members in wishing the college could favor local businesses when it decides which bids to accept.
Vice President of Business Sharon Konny had recommended that the board buy furniture needed for the remodeling of Building M and parts of three other offices from Interiors for Business of Batavia. It was the sole bidder with a price of $114,758.
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Meyer asked why only one company had bid on the furniture. Trustee Clare Ollayos said the college finds the cheapest source through an educational consortium called the E&I Cooperative that, she said, in effect does find the cheapest bidder statewide. Meyer and trustees Ellie MacKinney and Art Sauceda then said they would like for the college to be able to pick a provider from inside the college’s own district even if that provider’s price were a little higher.
“The consortium’s purchasing power is so big that it would be nearly impossible to get a lower price from a local firm,” said Trustee John Duffy.
Trustee Ellie MacKinney said she would like to “give an edge to business people who live and work in our district” but state law “ties our hands” by requiring governmental bodies to make large purchases from the lowest qualified bidder.
Duffy said the college could urge state legislators to change the purchasing rules so that a governmental body could give an advantage of perhaps 1 to 3 percentage points to local businesses when comparing bids from different companies. Meyer said if that only meant spending an extra $1,000 or $2,000 on a $100,000 purchase, it could help the local taxpayers overall by strengthening the local business community.
But Ollayos and Board Chairwoman Donna Redmer said that as present or past business owners, they have seen that attempts to manipulate things like that sometimes have “unintended consequences.”
College President David Sam said he will have the college’s purchasing department make a presentation to the board at the board’s next committee-of-the-whole meeting on June 8.