JANUARY 2003 MINUTES

January 27, 2003 Minutes

Members in Attendance:

Judy Cole, South Whitehall Township
Lenore Horos, South Whitehall Township
Price Morris, Lancaster City Housing Authority
Stephen Suder, Delaware River Port Authority
Jack Lorenzo, Montgomery County
Pete Navarro, Chester County
Scott Brodt, City of Allentown
Angela Marino, City of Allentown
Diane McKenzie, City of Allentown
Mary Ann Ramey, Whitehall Township
Renee Carpenter, Berks County
April Lenhart, Berks County
Maureen McIlvaine, Bucks County
Maura Sullivan, Bucks County
Rene Kahl, Northampton County
Chris Parnau, Northampton County
George Nader, Lehigh County
Kevin Sharp, City of Reading
Ann Wertman, Lehigh County

Meeting Location: Chester County Government Services Center, West Chester, PA

Meeting Host: Peter Navarro

President George Nader called the General Meeting to order at 10:15 AM.

First order of business was to express gratitude to Mary Ann Ramey for her dedicated service to PAPPA as President during her 2001-2002 term.

George announced that through a Presidential Appointee, he has added Price Morris to the Board of Directors.

One of the many handouts available at the meeting was the updated listing of Officers, Committee Chairs and Committee members. George asked all members to volunteer for committee service and will provide copies of the handout to the entire membership.

A brief wrap-up of the January 13, 2003 Leaders Meeting was presented by the President, highlighting officer duties and concepts to improve meeting interest and attendance.

New procedures for processing of minutes for General Meetings were presented. All minutes will be clearly labeled either “draft” or “approved.” Minutes will not be read aloud at meetings, however time to review prior to motion will be given. All minutes will conclude with a notation that any handouts, which are not attached, can be obtained by contacting the Secretary. The President prior to distribution to the entire PAPPA membership will review the draft copy for accuracy. Approved minutes of General Meetings will appear on the PAPPA website only.

A motion to approve the minutes of the November 18, 2002 General Meeting as written was made by Maura Sullivan and seconded by Price. The members in attendance voted unanimously to accept these minutes.

George also explained the approved policy on Board Meeting minutes. These minutes will also be labeled as “draft” or “approved.” After initial approval of the “draft” by the President, the “draft” will be circulated to the Board Members. Board minutes will not be read aloud prior to discussion and approval. Copies of the “draft” Board minutes will be available at the General Meeting and any changes made prior to approval will be given verbally. The “approved” version of the Board minutes will be circulated to all PAPPA members but will not appear on the PAPPA website.

Copies of the January 13, 2003 “draft” Board minutes were made available to the members in attendance. George notified all of the modifications made prior to approval during the Board Meeting held earlier that morning.

Scott Brodt distributed his November and December 2002 Treasurer’s Report, pointing out the footnotes following the December 31, 2002 balance which lists the outstanding checks and the January 6, 2003 account interest. Jack Lorenzo moved to accept the outgoing Treasurer’s Report; full approval by the members in attendance followed the second by Maura.

Chris Parnau, 2003-2004 Treasurer, updated the membership to 1/27/2003, reporting a balance of $6,201.16 with outstanding receivables of approximately $7025 and Board approved payables of $2855. After all these transactions are factored in, the new balance will be approximately $10,000. It was mentioned that the 2003 dues will add an estimated $750 of revenue.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Awards - April Lenhart, Committee Chair, made available the requirements and applications to be considered for the Scholarship Program, the Professional Buyer of the Year and Professional Purchasing Manager of the Year Awards. The guidelines to establish a Longevity Award are still being discussed. To complete her records, April also needs the membership issue dates for Chris, Mary Ann Rimsky and Janet Stuff. George indicated he would forward the Board approved awards program to Diane McKenzie for incorporation into the Operations Guide. April also reported on the Board’s approval of her request to extend the 10/1/2002 deadline for the Scholarship Program and the 2/28/2003 deadlines for Buyer and Manager of the Year Awards to 3/31/2003 for this year only.

Finance - Judy Cole, Committee Chair, referred to Scott for an update on Bill Lund’s progress on PAPPA’s request to be included under the NIGP blanket for 501C3 Form exemption and the resulting 501 Letter to verify our non-profit status. Mr. Lund is continuing to monitor our filing through Chip Watkins of NIGP. To date no official notification on completion of the 501C3 or 501 Letter have been received by Maureen McIlvaine. Scott recently completed the forms for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sales tax exemption using the 2002 close out figures and new listing of 2003-2004 officers. Scott also distributed a 2002 financial activity report. Judy had nothing to add to the Committee report.

Legislative - Ann Wertman, Committee Chair, passed out a brief Legislative Report that reflected the House and Senate actions just prior to the close of the 2001-2002 Legislative Session. Lenore Horos distributed copies of the Local Government Commission’s listing of Acts signed by the Governor. A show of hands by the members indicated that many were already receiving the Commission’s listing of Acts and the distribution was a duplication of effort. Those members not currently receiving the listing of “Acts Signed Into Law By the Governor” can request to be added to the mailing list by calling 717-787-7680 or faxing to 717-772-4524.

Marketing - Mary Ann Ramey, Committee Chair, discussed possible observances of Purchasing Month that is held in March each year. She felt holding a scavenger hunt would create interest. Mary Ann circulated a sample listing of items to gather and bring to the March 17th PAPPA Meeting with a winner/s presentation during our lunch gathering. The final “hunt” list will be forwarded to the Secretary to be an attachment to the minutes. An attempt will again be made to have press coverage by the East Penn Press. Mary Ann suggested we wait to purchase speaker gifts until we host the proposed May 2004 Regional Conference so that these items may be ordered in conjunction with a larger order for better value.

Membership - Steve Suder, Committee Chair, reviewed the improved procedure for processing of dues for both new members and renewals. All new membership checks and renewals will be received by Membership. Information received with the payment of dues will be reviewed for completeness and any changes in current data will be processed and circulated to all Board Members and Committee Chairs. In turn, this data on new memberships will trigger the prompt addition of the name to the website, a welcome letter by the President as well as the preparation of a copy of the Operations Guide and new Member plaque. All dues checks will then be passed on to the Treasurer. Again, it was emphasized that the application and payment for new members must both be received before Membership releases the data. George will issue the welcome letter within 2 weeks to encourage attendance at the next regularly scheduled meeting. Steve also stressed the February 26th deadline to forward dues to Ferne McGrath.

Operations Guide - Diane, Committee Chair, is processing all updates. She also asked that everyone include piggyback information when submitting their updated bid lists for compilation in the Operations Guide. Diane indicated the annual Operations Guide update will be available by the March Chapter meeting.

ProD - Price, Committee Chair, reminded everyone that the 2003 Seminar schedule is now on the website and after NIGP approval is given, additional sessions requested by Tom Youngs for the Pittsburgh area will be added. Price reported 23 students completed the 1/15/2003 Seminar in Philadelphia. George mentioned that the Board approved the purchase of the review disks for both the CPPB and CPPO, however only the CPPB will be ordered, as this is the area of immediate interest. It was a concern that the curriculum for the CPPO may change and the disk would be out-of-date when requested by a future candidate. As such, the CPPO disk will be ordered immediately upon indication of its need.

Website - Kevin Sharp, Committee Chair, reported 2400 hits to the site to date, an average of 4 per day. All available updates have been made including officers and seminars. Pittsburgh’s seminars should be listed by the end of this week. Kevin indicated that the next Chapter Spotlight will be focused on George as the new PAPPA President.

By-Laws - Diane, Committee Chair, had nothing new to report.

Chapter Liaison - Price reported there will be a Region 1 Conference in Annapolis, Maryland in Fall.

NIGP Liaison - Bill Irish was not able to attend but forwarded his report with Chris. Nominations are being received for Region 1 Representative to the NIGP Board, the seat that Bill will be vacating.

Newsletter - April shared the draft of her second edition of the PAPPA Connection that has grown to 6 pages. The current edition and all future editions will be displayed on both the PAPPA and NIGP websites. It was also determined that no approval of the text was required, however a courtesy copy would be distributed to the President and Board members before release.

Strategic Plan - The President noted this annual planning session will be held in May, location and date to be announced.

OLD BUSINESS:

Mary Ann handed out the 2002 Attendance Certificates to those in attendance. Remaining certificates will be mailed with a cover letter from George.

George shared the seminar cancellation policy that was approved by the Board on January 13, 2003. It notes that full refunds will be given only for cancellations received in writing at least 14 days before the seminar. Cancellations received 7 to 14 days before the seminar starting date are subject to a $75.00 cancellation fee. There will be no refund for cancellations received less than 7 days before the seminar or for no shows. Diane will add this the Operations Guide.

The PAPPA brochure has been updated by the President and will be e-mailed or faxed to the membership. George will try to update and distribute the brochure quarterly.

NEW BUSINESS:

The President and several other members received a donation request from the Lewis E. Spangler (LES) Professional Development Foundation. After discussion it was decided the letter was directed towards individuals and not the Chapter.

George clarified that Metrocall’s bid for Wireless Paging through U.S. Communities has been withdrawn.

Members were polled as to whether all are directly receiving the Procurement Professional publication. George will continue to bring the multiple copies forwarded to him as President since it was determined the national members are on the mailing list but those holding only Chapter membership are not.

After sharing copies of the Chapter Networker, the same poll was taken. The President and Price receive this publication. George will continue to bring limited copies since there was some interest expressed.

Along the same line, handouts received by e-mail from NIGP are not reaching all members and will continue to be available at Chapter meetings. Those shared today included:

5th Annual Diversity Essay Contest is underway
UPPCC Certifications
2002 Bid Threshold Benchmarking Study
Periscope & NIGP Enroll Statewide Clients
2003 Committees in Full Swing

George asked if there were any suggestions for a new name for the discussion portion of this and future meetings which is now being referred to as “Coffee Talk.” Suggestions should be e-mailed to the President for future consideration by the members.

The meeting was now opened to “Coffee Talk” and included discussion as follows:

April asked if any other municipality had solicited work or supplies at no charge in exchange for free advertisement, also referred to as sponsorship. Berks County is considering free landscaping service in exchange for prominent advertising. No one present has had past experience with such a solicitation as a procurement tool.

Publications available to assist in writing cancellation letters that withstand legal challenges was the next topic. While some members have a format they have used without challenge, Price suggested that the NIGP seminar on Procurement Protest would probably address this issue.

Next issue was cutoff for late arrivers to pre-bid meetings. The majority allows late arrivals while one advertises the specific cutoff time in their bid. It was generally agreed that valuable information should be distributed in an addendum that would include all present.

Question about handling firewall protection or system security audit. The majority treats this as a professional service; a small minority have solicited proposals.

How do we handle tie bids? One County goes entirely by the time stamp, first in is awarded. Several gave preference to a past vendor over a new vendor. The majority seemed to go by a flip of the coin. It was also mentioned that in an award by line item, tied items were given to the vendor with the least award to even up business.

Bidders list release prior to award – seemed to be evenly split in opinion. The Municipalities that disclose this information do so mostly for use by subcontractors, not agencies such as Dodge reports.

Question on allowing bid review at opening. Many did allow review during openings while others specially listed in their specifications that bids are not public information until the award is made. Yet another doesn’t allow viewing during the opening but posts a draft tab sheet on the website or will supply it to bidders upon request.

Irrevocable Letter of Credit as Security? Several did not accept while others provided sample language of what was acceptable with their bid package.

Is a bid acceptable when the security has missing signatures, POA or seals. The majority rejected the bid when one or more of these were not included. Another municipality has had a legal ruling that if the low bid is missing any of these on their security; the vendor must be contacted for correction or completion and cannot be automatically rejected.

At 11: 45 A.M. the meeting was recessed for lunch.

At 12:45 P.M. the meeting reconvened and the floor was opened to additional “Coffee Talk.”

Question was raised on releasing the budget allowance for an advertised project. It was the feeling of the majority that this information should not be provided. A suggestion was offered to express whether or not prevailing wage was included in the budget calculations.

Question on purchasing at GSA pricing. While it was agreed that GSA could be offered, agencies outside the Federal government cannot legally use this as a procurement tool. Since heavy equipment was the item being discussed, information was shared on piggybacking on the Capitol City Co-op (Harrisburg) vehicle bid that is based on a markup percentage to cost. Price has used this co-op bid and found it to be in line with PA State Contract pricing but easier to use.

Maureen welcomed suggestions on topics or the names of speakers for future meetings.

With all business being completed, Jack Lorenzo moved to adjourn the meeting followed by a second by Maura Sullivan. The motion was passed unanimously.

Next Meeting: March 17, 2003, as the guest of Whitehall Township

Speaker: Mr. Christopher Mellis, US Communities Regional Marketing Manager

Speaker Topic: US Communities background, operation and available contracts

NOTE: Reports or attachments referred to and not attached to these minutes may be obtained by contacting the Secretary.