News & Information

CPE Press Releases & Accolades

Honor In Procurement (HIP) Award Goes to the City of Lawrence, KS

Center for Procurement Excellence (CPE) IS THE NEW total cost ownership (TCO)

TEMPE, Ariz.  November 01, 2018 — The Center for Procurement Excellence (CPE) is pleased to announce the City of Lawrence, Kansas as the recipient of the 2018 CPE Honor in Procurement (HIP) Award. The award was presented to the City of Lawrence’s Assistant Director of Utilities, Melinda Harger. Harger was thanked for her guidance of the City’s policy change efforts to allow for Alternative Project Delivery Methods for capital projects. Harger and the City utilized research and methods recommended by CPE to develop specific procedures for Alternative Project Delivery Methods.

Policy Change – with a Caveat for Transparency!
In January 2018, the City approved a charter ordinance to enable the use of Alternative Construction Methods. Historically, the City has used a Design-Bid-Build approach to construct most capital projects. The City passed a new charter ordinance because State law traditionally calls for a sealed-bid process.

Yet the initial approval came with a caveat – the City Commission requested that detailed procedures be developed to clearly show how Alternative Project Delivery Methods will be selected for future capital projects. The procedures also addressed the manner in which vendors would be procured and managed within the Alternative Delivery Methods.

To develop these procedures, the City utilized CPE best practices in the areas of:
(1) Crafting an evaluation process used to select vendors in a way that balanced qualifications and price. Critical aspects of the process are:

  1. An appropriate Selection Committee;
  2. Core elements of the solicitation documents;
  3. Categories of effective evaluation criteria;
  4. Two-envelope cost evaluations, and;
  5. Maximum limits on the weight assigned to individual evaluation criteria, including the maximum

weight assigned to cost evaluations.
(2) Project Management and Oversight to promote accountability and transparency throughout the construction phase, including:

  1. Regular tracking of project status, and
  2. Formal reviews of vendor performance.

The Path Forward
The City’s new policies are already being put into action. In late August 2018, the City approved the first construction project to use the Alternative Delivery Procedures. The City released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a $16M first phase of a new police headquarters under the Construction Manager at Risk method (CMAR) rather than the traditional low-bid method. CPE has provided recommendations to assist the City with their RFP language and evaluation procedures to select the most qualified Construction Manager according to fair, open, and transparent systems.

About CPE
CPE is a non-profit member organization focused on the support, education and certification of cutting edge solicitation practices that emphasize attracting and hiring high performing vendors. It provides training and certification for procurement professionals, provides standardized documents, and a venue for procurement professionals to network and advance procedures, processes, and systems.

 

Contact Information
Jeff Sawyer
Center for Procurement Excellence +1 (480) 424-5303

jeff.sawyer@center4procurement.org

Online Web 2.0 Version

You can read the online version of this press release here.

“If you seek improved procurement processes and outcomes, joint CPE. It is a unique resource, based on 30+ years of procurement research."

– Paul Hoogenboom, President, Tremco Construction Products Group