Section 2-4154 of the City of Savannah's Purchasing Ordinance currently authorizes "cooperative purchasing," whereby the City, in lieu of its competitive bidding procedures, may purchase goods or services by accessing a bid or contract competitively awarded by any other public entity. However, City ordinance only allows cooperative purchasing if an agreement is first developed with each public entity for each procurement. Developing such agreements is often not practical, and limits the City's ability to take advantage of such cooperative purchasing arrangements. 

The proposed amendment to Sec. 2-4154 allows the use of contracts competitively procured by other governmental agencies, as allowed by State law.  Such purchases may occur without competitive bidding as long as the contract was originally competitively bid and the original bid or contract is current and in effect. In such cases, the City will not be the signatory of the original contract, but will instead negotiate a new contract with the vendor based on the initial governmental agency’s contract award.  Such contracts shall include requirements for participation of small, local and disadvantaged business enterprises and local workforce utilization under the Hire Savannah Program.

Approval