www.govpro.

com DECEMBER 2022

Oh, the
times are PLUS:

a-changing Procurement together—

An interconnected future
Using outcome-based
A comprehensive contracting to achieve
look at some of the sustainability goals
government trends
of the future Procurement’s
many characters
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 CONTENTS
DECEMBER 2022
VOLUME 30, NO. 4

IN DEPTH

8 Oh, the Times

are A-Changing
A comprehensive look
at some government
trends for the future

PERSPECTIVES
2 Procurement Ponderable:
Using Outcome-Based Contracting
to Help Your Entity Achieve its
Strategic Goals for Sustainablity

HOT TOPICS
4 Looking Ahead: The interconnected
future of cooperative purchasing
and eProcurement

BACK PAGE
13 Darin Matthews: Procurement
Has Some Real Characters

govpro.com • GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT | 1

PERSPECTIVES [ponderable
editor’s note]]

PROCUREMENT PONDERABLE A Informa® Publication

Using Outcome-Based Contracting

to Help Your Entity Achieve Its
Strategic Goals for Sustainability
Stephen B. Gordon, Ph.D., CPPO-Ret., FNIGP
Public sector organizations have not optimized their substantial purchasing
power and their abilities to achieve organizational and societal goals for
sustainability. While sustainable procurement is widely discussed in public 605 Third Avenue
procurement circles, the ways that governments have sought to achieve such New York, NY 10158
www.americancityandcounty.com/
goals—including specifying compliance with various types and levels of government-procurement
product standards, focusing exclusively on technologies known to be
EDITORIAL STAFF
effective at the time, and using third-party contracts that incorporate either
or both of these two ways—have yielded lower levels of sustainability than Michelle M. Havich •
Contributing Editor
could be achieved through outcome-based contracting. michelle.havich@informa.com
Consider that a hypothetical public university’s procurement office has Denise Walde • Production Manager
committed to help its institution complete the conversion of the denise.walde@informa.com
university’s fleet from fossil fuels to all-electric by 2042. While the resultant Desiree Torres • Audience
Marketing Director
impact of this approach will be more sustainable, the impact on sustainability desiree.torres@informa.com
likely will be lower, and possibly less economical than it could be if the Wes Clark • Art Director
university were to take a comprehensive strategic procurement approach. wesley.clark@informa.com
Such an approach would entail fully competitive, outcome-based, best
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
value contracting involving both award and post-award incentives and
Debbie Field, CPPO,VCO
best practice competitive negotiation in which the desired outcome is the Virginia Department of
maximum practicable achievement of measurable and beneficial sustainable General Services
impact over the life of the contract. A strategic procurement approach Yolanda C. Jones, C.P.M., APP
Clark County, Nev.
could enable the university to benefit from alternative technologies that Jay T. McCleary, CPPB
currently exist but are not being marketed and technologies that will emerge City of Red Wing, Minn.
during the next 20 years to optimize favorable impact on sustainability.
Keys to success would include the solicitation issued by the university GROUP OFFICER
containing sufficient purchasing power in the marketplace to be taken Paul Caplan • General Manager
paul.caplan@informa.com
seriously; collaborative discussions within and among the procurement,
supplier and SME communities before the solicitation is issued; and the
ability of the university and additional entities that might join in the ADVERTISING SALES
solicitation to consider any potential impacts on sustainability and other Tim Clary • Sales Manager
tim.clary@informa.com
strategic goals as far down as possible in each competitor’s supply chain.
There are several ways through which the university could collaborate
with other public entities to assure that the purchasing power is
sufficient to drive desired results.
Will bringing together the data, technology and expertise needed to
produce and sustain a ready-to-use tool for optimizing sustainable
procurement happen organically? Or will the procurement community
wait for the private sector to create the much-needed solution for them.
Finally, there are other keys to success. They are the characteristics
of strategic public procurement officials, which include: the ability to
recognize that a strategic problem or opportunity exists, a sense of urgency,
and the will, the self-confidence and the freedom to act autonomously.

STEPHEN B. GORDON, PhD, FNIGP, CPPO, is a longtime veteran

of the public procurement arena. His primary focus in retirement is on
helping those wwho struggle with loneliness, anxiety and depression.

2 | DECEMBER 2022
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HOTTOPICS [looking ahead]
PROCUREMENT TOGETHER—AN
INTERCONNECTED FUTURE
By Steve Isaac
L et me start with a couple of
hypothetical questions:
> If you knew that a software provider’s
implementation timeline was usually off by three
months, would that impact your selection?
> If a responsive supplier had been deemed
non-responsible by seven states, but not
your state, would you want to know?
> If you were deciding between two suppliers in
an emergency procurement situation, would
you want to know if one of them has never
had a complaint about late deliveries?
4 | DECEMBER 2022
Let me also ask: Is there any reason (beyond the
logistics of achieving such a thing) that this
information should not be freely accessible to every
purchaser in the country?
PROCUREMENT EFFORTS HAVE
STARTED TO INTERCONNECT
Back in June, my colleague Amanda Valdivieso
wrote in this space on the topic of de-siloing
procurement. She noted that “Shared data and insights
can play a huge role in reducing cost and risk in the
procurement process.”
She noted that procurement excels at interpersonal
Brain light/Alamy Stock Photo
connection and the accompanying sharing of ideas via EPROCUREMENT—TRANSFORMING
conferences and associations. But she also noted PROCUREMENTS INTO DATA
the rising interest in—and availability of—tech for Driven by the idea that manual, paper-based
interconnected procurement. Procurated Founder and procurement processes are onerous, costly, and
CEO David Yarkin recently spoke with procurement error-prone, eProcurement has grown quite a bit
legend Jack Pitzer on the “Decisions That Matter” over the last several decades. Starting as local file
podcast who also noted the importance of and document storage, eProcurement grew with the
collaboration and connection for the next decade nascent internet of the ’90s, to include templating,
of procurement. But how do we get there? document creation and early file transfer.
For public procurement tech, the past several eProcurement’s next phase, much of which is still
decades have seen massive growth in two parallel used in the U.S. today, involved the development of
arenas. The first is cooperative purchasing. procurement tools within and linked to on-premise
The second is eProcurement. government ERP systems. These eProcurement tools
enabled bid receipt and some degree of evaluation and
COOPERATIVE PURCHASING—AN tracking, while integrating with other government
INCREASING RELIANCE ON EACH OTHER functions like finance and asset management.
Cooperative purchasing as an idea relies on the The latest wave of eProcurement software is apiece
understanding that a rigorous, structured procurement with much of today’s tech—cloud-based Software-as-
process is difficult and time consuming. And that a-service. These tools allow for comprehensive custom
likely, somebody, somewhere has already done that bid and RFP creation, supplier response, bid opening
intensive work for exactly the product or service and evaluation, all in an entirely digital environment.
you want to procure—the intake with end-users Turbocharged by COVID—where purchasers needed
to build comprehensive specs, the research to find
suppliers, the bid opening, and a formal evaluation
and awarding process.
The rising use of cooperative purchasing agreements
and piggybacks has enabled public purchasers—
especially those who are time-strapped and under-
staffed—to both figuratively and literally keep the
lights on. And it has led to the significant financial
success of many national and regional co-ops.
This increasing use also reflects a desire to leverage
the knowledge and resources of the broader
procurement community. Like everything in public
procurement today, cooperative purchasing is
becoming increasingly interconnected. Historically,
cooperatives would expend considerable energy working
with internal and external stakeholders in establishing
contracts that would be effective for a wide swath
of organizations. But gauging supplier performance
across those thousands of using organizations was
difficult or impossible to do.
That is starting to change. Cooperatives are
recognizing that the value they provide can be boosted
when interconnected with insight from those end-
user purchasers. NASPO ValuePoint, for example
announced an initiative to directly gather ratings and
reviews of their contracted suppliers. By connecting the
buyer experience back to their process, and leveraging
those experiences as they manage their contracts,
they are starting to interconnect the procurement
process and improve their offerings for everyone.

govpro.com • GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT | 5

HOTTOPICS [looking ahead]
to be able to run these operations entirely online—
cloud-based eProcurement is on the rise.
eProcurement is starting to develop some
measure of community connection with features
like RFP template sharing, but most platforms
still don’t connect procurement professionals with
direct supplier insights from their colleagues.
That said, eProcurement providers are
recognizing that purchasers are eager to see
shared insights integrated into their platforms.
Periscope and OpenGov Procurement, for
example, have both started integrating supplier
insights and reviews into their platforms.
What eProcurement does do—and what
will be critically important in the next phase
of interconnected procurement—is transform
procurements into structured data.
Top-line and line-item prices, delivery times,
emissions information, supply-chain details,
service areas, resale values, etc. These are some of
the thousands of examples of answers provided
6 | DECEMBER 2022
by suppliers when they bid. When entered
into a cloud-based eProcurement platform,
these responses become structured data.
Readers of The Economist know why that
matters. They know that “the world’s most
valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.”
Procurement is starting to get into the game.
PROCUREMENT’S INTERCONNECTED FUTURE
Cooperative procurement and eProcurement are
two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle of interconnectedness for
public purchasing. And while both have recognized that
there is value in allowing procurement professionals
to learn and benefit from each other’s experiences,
neither was designed expressly for that purpose.
A new class of tool is out there that is designed
explicitly to meet that need. Today, thousands of
purchasers are sharing their experiences and insights
about suppliers online on Procurated. They are
collaborating to build a free resource where a buyer
from Portland, Maine, can learn directly from the
experiences of their colleagues in Portland, Ore.,
despite the 3,000 miles separating them.
This new tool is also creating structured data
in the form of ratings. Supplier performance is
being rated on a uniform scale, making it possible
to aggregate the experiences of hundreds of
buyers. This empowers purchasers to compare
suppliers within a category, apples-to-apples.
The value of this data is recognized by
counterparts in the co-op and eProcurement
spaces, with supplier insights and ratings being
directly integrated so that buyers can see them
within the tools they use every single day.

THE POWER OF PROCUREMENT TOGETHER
At Procurated, we believe in what we call
“Procurement Together.” What we mean by that
is that more than ever before, shared procurement
experiences and insights can help colleagues
from around the country make the best
purchasing decisions every time.
americancityandcounty.com
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Connect with us on social media
facebook.com/americancitycountymag
Procurement Together is a movement, a
shared belief in the power of our procurement
community when it is truly interconnected.
I started this article with some questions about
supplier insights. Then I asked, “Is there any
reason (beyond the logistics of achieving such a
thing) that this information should not be freely
accessible to every purchaser in the country?”
If you believe, like we do, that every purchaser
should have these insights at their fingertips, then
strap in. Our interconnected future is just beginning.
STEVE ISAAC is the director of government
marketing for Procurated, helping public purchasers
to leverage the power of peer insights in their
procurement processes. He has spent a decade
working with tech startups across the fields of
procurement, spatial data science, and nonprofit
fundraising and communications. Isaac lives in the
Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C.,
with his wife Lorna and his daughter Quinn.
twitter.com/AmerCityCounty
govpro.com • GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT | 7
IN DEPTH [2023 & beyond]

Oh, the times

are a-changing

Brain light / Alamy Stock Photo

8 | DECEMBER 2022
A comprehensive look at some of the
government trends of the future
By Tammy Rimes, MPA
T
he expression “there is no constant,
except for change” has been a truism
for government and educational teams
as ever-changing challenges have been
thrust upon them in an unprecedented
manner. Strategic organizations are
seeking to become more adaptable to address future trends.
CYBER SECURITY IS TOP PRIORITY
Data breach costs in the public sector are increasing and
ransom payments, where data is “stolen” by hackers and
money is demanded for its return, is on the rise. According
to Sophos State of Ransomware 2022 report, state and local
governments average payments of $214,000 per incident.
In many cases, ransomed data has been sold for nefarious
reasons. When further sales cannot be made, the data is then
ransomed back to the originating agency. However, paying
the ransom does not guarantee the data will be returned.
According to the Center for Digital Government, in 2022,
92 percent of cities, 90 percent of counties and 64 percent
of states carry cyber insurance. However, insurance only
covers an entity AFTER a breach has been discovered. To be
more proactive, the non-profit StateRAMP was created for a
standardized approach to cybersecurity standards for service
providers offering solutions to state and local governments.
Unauthorized access to government systems often occurs
through third-party software that might not be thoroughly
vetted for security measures. For instance, an invoice
payment system for suppliers or survey software measuring
customer service are ways that major breaches have occurred
in the past couple of years, affecting millions of people.
Based off a successful model used at the federal level,
Rebecca Kee, StateRAMP Government Implementations,
states: “Local governments need an independent
resource to vet and certify hundreds of suppliers who
offer software and cloud-based solutions. No local
entity has the resources or time to complete a deep-
dive analysis for every product acquired. Instead, they
usually rely on the vendor to self-certify or answer a
checklist of capabilities—without any independent
verification. Our philosophy is trust, but still verify.”
Through a StateRAMP free membership, a government
member planning a purchase of software or cloud
services, can now require that the supplier be verified
by StateRAMP. With a nominal charge to the supplier,
a verification model and vetting process ensures that
more than 170 specific security points must be achieved
and maintained to receive an annual credential.
While the process can be lengthy—up to six months—
it is extremely thorough. A contract award can still be
made and then the verification process negotiated to be
conducted within the first year of the contract. Once
verified, the supplier can then show this verification
to other government clients to establish security
credentials. Over time, StateRAMP strives to be the
standard for security among government clients.
WORKFORCE AUGMENTATION
As the Baby Boomer generation retires in greater
numbers, the need for succession planning and
backfilling empty positions is a huge challenge. The
problem is further exacerbated by the difficulty to attract
new employees. Many are not applying for long-term
government careers, particularly as life-time pensions
and health care are no longer guaranteed benefits.
Strategic Government Resources (SGR) is an organization
that helps state and local municipalities be successful in
recruiting, assessing, and developing government leaders.
With the second largest local government job board in the
nation, SGR serves more than 700 local governments in
47 states with special projects and attracting new talent.
Ron Holifield, the CEO of SGR, served two decades in city
management within Texas, including assistant city manager
in Plano; city manager in Garland, DeSoto, Farmersville
and Sundown; and city manager’s staff in Lubbock. “There
is a growing need to fill positions at all levels of government
and increasing demand for specialized skill sets,” Holifiled
says. “In addition, generational values create a paradigm
govpro.com • GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT | 9
IN DEPTH [2023 & beyond]
One of the most common
complaints about the
public bid process is
that it can be quite time-
consuming—for both
procurement and suppliers.
shift in attracting new employees. New candidates are
questioning archaic ways of government business and
looking for ways to drive purpose over function.”
Holifield shares an interesting story in how shifting the
mindset of a hiring entity might provide new opportunities.
For one township in Texas, the upcoming retirement of
the long-serving human resources (HR) director made
the city manager realize that hiring someone of the same
caliber would exceed their budget in attracting new talent.
Instead, a different solution was pursued. Working with
SGR, they retained a retired HR professional for two
to three days per week, while outsourcing supporting
duties. The result? The township receives greater
coverage and retains a high level of expertise for the
HR function, while generating personnel savings.
Dustin Lanier, founder and principal consultant for
Civic Initiatives, acknowledges, “We have heard from
procurement shops that recruiting remains a challenge.
However, retention is now eclipsing recruiting as an area of
workforce impact.” Lanier indicates his company, comprised
of former government procurement professionals, has
experienced an increased demand for services, from zero
requests two years ago to almost a third of its business today.
“Outsourcing campaigns of the past were blunt
instruments pursuing a work displacement strategy that
can generate negative responses from existing employees,”
Lanier says. “Strategic initiatives would be put in place,
usually by outsiders, and would disappear after the completed
engagement. The new model is ‘Procurement as a Service’
to extend a procurement organization’s staff line forward.
This approach does not displace staff, but rather works in
tandem with existing team members to address workloads
and offer specialized expertise that procurement struggles to
address through a full-time staff resource strategy alone.”
SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCY
According to Deloitte’s Government Trends 2022, supply
chain resiliency continues to be a strong focus. As municipal
warehouses were reduced over the last decade, and contracts
relied on same or next day delivery from suppliers, the
pandemic exposed the weaknesses of a contracted guaranteed
10 | DECEMBER 2022
delivery time, especially when products were not available.
While the federal government is making inroads with
inter-continental agreements and offering subsidies to move
manufacturing to the United States, local governments are
making their own plans. In some cases, warehousing is
making a comeback, especially with emergency supplies.
Where leasing or purchasing a warehouse proves to be too
expensive, some are partnering with suppliers who designate
a portion of their own warehouse for a specific entity,
particularly where purchasing volumes warrant the expense.
Supply chain manufacturing and shipping delays
further exacerbate the situation. Many agencies are told
that it might take months, or even years, to fill requests,
especially for heavy equipment and vehicles. Jon Stodola,
regional business manager from the Toro Company, offers
the following advice for entities who are strategizing on
these larger purchases: “Plan further ahead by placing
orders well in advance of a typical seasonal purchase.
Don’t wait for things to break. It may take months to find
a replacement. Also, collaborate with trusted suppliers to
understand any market trends they see for the road ahead.”
INCREASED USE OF COOPERATIVE PROCUREMENT
One of the most common complaints about the public
bid process is that is can be quite time-consuming—for
both procurement and suppliers. Having a government or
cooperative organization conduct that lengthy procurement
process, resulting in a contract that leverages volume pricing
advantages, has become a streamlined contracting method.
Jensen Mabe, vice president of sales and business
development from the Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS),
shares the benefits of cooperative procurement for both
sides of the procurement desk. For public agencies, he
states, “Utilizing cooperative contracts allows procurement
personnel to focus on managing their purchases, instead
of the time-consuming bid process. On the supplier side,
Some advice—place orders for
heavy equipment well in advance
of a typical seasonal purchase.
it focuses their efforts on offering best value solutions,
rather than spending resources on responding to hundreds
of individual solicitations. A recently awarded supplier
shared that by adding a cooperative contract into their
sales strategy allowed them to elevate their company’s
public sector business over 200 percent year-to-year.”
As government needs are changing, so are the types
of contract offerings. A newly formed TIPS partnership
with CommercePayments Payment Hub manages vendor
information and facilitates payments, while providing a
reconciliation file back to an entity’s ERP system. The system
simplifies and expedites the AP process—an end-to-end
solution for receiving, approving, paying, reconciling and
storing invoices. Serving as a help desk for supplier payment
questions, a time-consuming process for resource strapped
agencies, the best part of the value proposition provides
a revenue sharing opportunity. To date, $9 million has
gone back to its 400+ education and government clients.
Mabe offers a glimpse of continuing evolutionary
changes. “While energy savings performance contracts have
historically been a part of cooperative contract portfolios,
there is a recent shift in Energy Efficiency as a Service
(EEaaS), allowing facility upgrades without the burden
of raising capital or relying on bond elections,” he says.
“Construction and job order contracts also appear to be
on the rise, especially for quickly needed repair projects.
Facility directors are realizing the value of a contracted
construction team that can be quickly mobilized.”
URGENCY FOR SUSTAINABILITY
As climate change increasingly affects communities,
with regional emergencies such as intensified hurricanes
and wildfires, the focus on healthy environments is gaining
political attention. Municipalities are responding to
address the issue and reduce their own carbon footprint.
In Minnesota, St. Paul and Minneapolis unveiled their
first five electric carsharing hubs in the Twin Cities, for
a joint 70-station Electronic Vehicle (EV) Spot network.
The $12 million network is used to charge both private
electric vehicles and new Evie Carshare vehicles from
HOURCAR, a St. Paul-based nonprofit. HOURCAR
members can reserve EV Spots curbside within a
Greenville, S.C. collaborated with
RoofConnect to install solar panels
on a covered basketball court.
govpro.com • GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT | 11
IN DEPTH [2023 & beyond]
35-square-mile service area, allowing access to electric
cars that some might not be able to afford on their own.
The 70 EV Spot charging locations doubles the number
of public charging ports in the Twin Cities and considered
the nation’s largest publicly owned electric vehicle initiative.
Winner of the 2018 Bloomberg Philanthropies American
Cities Climate Challenge, this project aims to curb
greenhouse gas emissions, particularly related to the largest
users of non-renewable energy—transportation and buildings.
With an expensive initial price tag for the project, a
strategic partnership was needed with a funding source
with expertise in municipal funding and fleet leasing. NCL
Government Capital provided multiple solutions for this
complex project, including the use of federal tax credits to
help offset a portion of the vehicle costs. The various leasing
solutions gave the project the ability to access more vehicles
than they originally envisioned within the same budget.
PARTNERING FOR INNOVATION
With shrinking resources, compounded with the desire
to be innovative, many entities are relying on supplier
networks and experts in industry to assist on new projects.
As a former parks and ground administrator, and now
assistant to the city manager for Greenville, S.C., Megan
Young shares her experience with a major solar project.
With this forward-thinking concept, in-house expertise
to answer basic questions of how to proceed, who will do the
work and how to quantify success did not exist. Rather than
attempt to issue a bid and hope for the best, they decided to
interview industry expert suppliers and contract through
a cooperative contract. RoofConnect was brought onboard
for their consulting expertise. “Using an already awarded
contract allowed the opportunity for a partnership rather
than a transactional relationship,” Young says. “Together, our
teams performed a walk-through of the facilities, identified
the strengths and weaknesses of various options, with open
and transparent conversations on what would work best.”
For the David Hellams Community Center, the city
initially envisioned installing solar panels on the recreation
center roof. However, through discussions with RoofConnect,
they determined the better option was a nearby covered
basketball court roof and scheduled installation around
recreation schedules. Young states, “Having a relationship
with our chosen supplier made the process much smoother.”
From RoofConnect’s perspective, Ken Beck, director of
business development states, “We appreciate the opportunity
to share our expertise and knowledge. The traditional bid
process does not always allow for these types of
conversations and collaboration, as we are just as invested
in a project’s success.”
Supplemented by a $10,000 mini-grant from the South
Carolina Department of Energy, 100 solar panels were
installed last July. To embrace local support and further
educational efforts, an open house was scheduled for
12 | DECEMBER 2022
the community. “We scheduled the event when parents
were arriving during the afternoon shift to collect their
children,” Young says. “Sharing information about the
project and resulting energy savings, allowed us to introduce
the concept of solar energy to both students and parents.
As of October 2022, we saved over 94.68 lbs. of carbon
dioxide, which is equivalent to planting over 715 trees.”
KEEPING GOVERNMENT ACCESSIBLE
Good communication is a crucial part of providing
government services to the public, particularly in high
consequent areas such as 911 emergency calls. Think of the
last time you were called for jury duty, had to navigate a
new DMV system or required legal representation. These
situations can be confusing. Now, imagine if you were one of
the millions of people who is not proficient in English, or has
a hearing or visual impairment. Critical information might
be misinterpreted, or missed completely, along the way.
Ed Regan, director of sales for GLOBO, a company
dedicated to language access, shares, “an estimated
61.6 million people—born both inside and outside the
U.S.—speak a language other than English at home. The
limited-English proficient (LEP) population has grown
rapidly in recent years, increasing more than 80 percent
between 1990 and 2013 from 14 million to 25.1 million.
GLOBO has been the city of Philadelphia’s comprehensive
language support partner since 2017. As the city transformed
during the Covid-19 pandemic, GLOBO supported the
city’s Department of Health by transitioning to fully remote
home visits and meetings that required interpreters via
GLOBO’s Multi-participant Video Remote Interpreting
solution; assisted the daily COVID press briefings
where information was shared on city policies, testing
sites, school closures and other government mandates;
and implemented new dedicated telephone lines for
departments like the Office of Emergency Management and
the city’s COVID Contact Tracing Unit. Last year alone,
GLOBO serviced more than 350 different languages.
With a belief that everyone should have equal access
to information, GLOBO calls for a more “empathetic
future.” “The need for better experiences will no longer be
a nice-to-have, but a necessity,” Regan says. “To provide
impactful services that move the needle, government
teams must consider the journey that all their residents
take when accessing resources and services.”
TAMMY RIMES, MPA, is the executive director of the
National Cooperative Procurement Partners (NCPP).
She formally served as purchasing agent for the city of San
Diego, the ninth largest city in the nation, and emergency
logistics chief during the 2007 Witch Creek Fires. Under her
leadership, the city consolidated its warehouse operations,
centralized all purchasing and contracting operations,
and moved to a more customer focused approach.
BACK PAGE [darin matthews]

Procurement Has Some

Real Characters
A s I look back at the past 30 years, I have to say that my procurement career has been quite
a journey. I’ve worked on lots of interesting projects, built some fantastic procurement
teams, and have met my share of real characters. Let me rephrase that last part.
I have met many people with real character.
Andrew Colas is president of Colas Construction in Portland, Ore. They are a very well-respected
contractor whose project portfolio includes government facilities, affordable housing and commercial
projects. Colas also has a strong reputation for their commitment to small and diverse businesses.
His father, Herman, started the business in 1997 and built a successful company that includes
his three children as executive leaders. As president and CEO, Andrew is the one I have worked
with the most. Several years ago, my agency issued a solicitation for a multi-million-dollar
building project. One might say it was “right up their alley.”
However, while it was on the street, Andrew and his father made an appointment to meet
with me as the agency CPO. In a professional manner, they shared that they would not be
submitting a proposal for the project. The structure of the RFP did not lend itself to support
their commitment to a diverse pool of sub-contractors. In my entire career, I have rarely seen
such integrity up close. It was a short, but positive meeting, that ultimately led my agency to
revise its procurement rules and practices to better support diversity and inclusion.
Gwen Douglass is a sales representative for a major scientific supply company. She has
supported the entire University of California system, including my own Santa Cruz
campus. During a quarterly business review a few years ago, my team inquired as to her
participation in an upcoming supplier show. Turns out she had a prior commitment.
Gwen has volunteered for more than 20 years for a non-profit organization that provides free
medical care to individuals in need. Flying Samaritans travel to various
parts of Mexico to work in clinics that serve the 60 percent of the Mexican
population that are not eligible for health care. In addition to doing anything
that is asked of her, Gwen serves as a translator, so that the local Spanish
speakers can convey their symptoms to the English doctors and dentists.
Nathan Mosley is a great father. Not only to his two daughters, but to
many Portland area young people that look up to his as a father figure. As
a procurement professional with experience in public, aerospace and social
media sectors, Nathan gladly shares his expertise with colleagues and
students. We both served as faculty members for the University of California,
where he was a popular guest lecturer in my procurement classes.
When he’s not teaching or practicing procurement? For many years,
Nathan operated a baseball academy for Portland area youth. As a
young Black kid growing up in North Portland, he had role models
and mentors he looked up to. Now it was his turn to give back to his
community. Nathan stressed the little things that can play a part in a person’s success, including
on the baseball field. A few found success in sports, but all found success in their adult lives.
What a bunch of characters!

DARIN MATTHEWS, CPPO, CPSM, NIGP-CPP, is the chief procurement officer for Cal Poly University in San Luis
Obispo, Calif. He has extensive management experience, speaks throughout the world on procurement issues, and has
published several books and articles on supply chain management. Contact Matthews at DarinLMatthews@gmail.com.

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