By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members heard a presentation on the city’s procurement processes during
their most recent meeting.
The presentation was given by City Purchasing Director Luis Menchaca.
City Manager Shawna Burkhart prefaced the presentation by telling the council, “I asked
that he review for all of us, including council, the basic procurement methods that the city
uses and any terminology that we might use that you may have questions on.”
Menchaca told the council he is the director of the city’s purchasing division, which is a
part of the finance department. Menchaca said he has been worked for the city since July
2020 and has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in
public administration.
Menchaca reviewed the city’s purchasing processes, including the goals and structure of
the purchasing division, the sealed procurement process, cooperative contracts and job
order purchasing, emergency procurement and exemptions.
Menchaca said the goal of the city’s purchasing department “is to ensure all purchases
made with city of Del Rio funds meet the rules and regulations established by statute or
ordinance.”
He also went over what the city’s purchasing division is required to do. He noted the
division consists of five members, including the purchasing agent, assistant purchasing
agent, purchasing specialist and two warehouse technicians.
Menchaca went over the steps in the purchasing process, which begins with a need being
determined by the end user.
“This occurs while they are planning their budget requests or going through their day-to-
day, and they’re identifying what is needed by their division in order for it to be run,”
Menchaca said.
He said the end user must have secured the budget to fund the request and must obtain
quotes.
Approval to proceed with the purchase is based on the purchasing level, Menchaca said.
He said there are four different purchasing levels, and each level requires a different
number of quotes and approvals.
Level I, from zero to $2,500, requires one quote and the approval of a supervisor and the
purchasing agent; Level II, from $2,500.01 to $25,000, requires at least two quotes and
approval by a supervisor, department head, finance director and purchasing agent; Level
III, from $25,000.01 to $50,000, requires at least three quotes and approval of supervisor,
department head, finance director, city manager and purchasing agent; and Level IV,
from $50,000.01 and up, requires sealed bids and the approval of city council.
Mayor Al Arreola said he has heard “some people say” that sealed bids are sometimes
opened before the published bid opening date and time, and
Menchaca assured him that never happened.
He added the bid openings are events open to the public and said he often invites city
staff members to attend as well.
Menchaca said the most common process used by the purchasing department is the
request for bids.
“That is a formal written competitive sealed bid method used to obtain written bids for
procurements exceeding $50,000. The city will award the purchase to the vendor that best
meets specifications solicited in the request for bids while providing the best price,”
Menchaca said.
He said the city also uses requests for qualifications, which are generally for obtaining
professional services, and the price for services is negotiated after the city selects the
best-qualified respondent.
Menchaca told the council, “This solicitation method is more like an application process,
where it is very clear what is expected from the vendor.”
Finally, the city also uses requests for proposals, normally used for the purchase of high
technology items and for services pertaining to more complex projects. He said this
process is used when factors other than price are to be considered.
Menchaca also reviewed the city’s use of cooperative contracts in procurement.
“The Texas Legislature has provided governmental entities the ability to purchase goods
and services in cooperation with one another. The benefit of using cooperative contracts
as part of the purchasing process include streamlined processes and (it) reduces overall
purchasing process time. The vetting process has been completed (previously) and
reduces risk, and it regularly provides better pricing for the city,” Menchaca said.
City Attorney Ana Markowski Smith asked Menchaca to elaborate on the cooperative
contract process.
Menchaca said, “So basically what these are, are, examples of interlocal agreements and
they’re also agencies that have already done the vetting for us. So, for example,
Buyboard, they want to issue out a contract for the sale of (Ford) F-150s or generators,
and so what they do is, they put out a list of specifications and vendors are able to go in
and submit their bids. They are then vetted. It is reviewed, and they are issued a contract,
so that’s why it’s called a cooperative contract, because it is an actual contract they are
given by these agencies.”
He added the city is then able to “piggyback off the work that’s already been done for
us.”
“So it’s a way of saving time. Instead of putting out the specifications ourselves, posting
it, reviewing all of that, we are able to piggyback off these contracts that have already
done all of the work for us and is already ensuring the better value is available for us,”
Menchaca said.
He said the contracts also help because Del Rio is so geographically isolated that vendors
often don’t pay attention to local postings. The cooperative contracts allow the city to buy
from companies all over the state, he added.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez commented that he appreciated Menchaca’s presentation,
adding, “Obviously you put a lot of work into it, and you provided us with a lot of
information, and I want to thank you.”
Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus asked how many of the local auto dealerships were in the
statewide cooperative agreements, and Menchaca said none are.
“That is one way we can work on keeping money in Del Rio, because when you keep the
money in Del Rio, it flows around, and it’s a big economic driver, rather than Caldwell
(dealership), which is one of the ones we use a lot, we’re sending tons of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, outside of the community, that we’re not getting any
benefit from, so I think we need to balance the ‘it makes it easier,’ with keeping money in
the community,” DeReus said.
DeReus said for “fairly common vehicles,” like Ford F-150s or Chevrolet/GMC 1500s,
“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be putting it out to local vendors, to give them that
opportunity.”
Menchaca replied that every time the city puts out bids for prospective purchases of
vehicles, he makes sure the requests are posted locally.
Menchaca then went over the remainder of his presentation, discussing emergency
procurements, which he said must meet certain criteria, which are set out by state law.
An example, he said, when the city’s wastewater plant had a piece of equipment that
broke unexpectedly and the plant went down. Other emergency procurements were made
during the week-long snow emergency in 2021.
Finally, Menchaca went over exemptions to the procurement process, which include
natural resources, personal, professional or planning services; land or rights-of-way, sole-
source items.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
