The Department of Finance shall include a Purchasing Department
headed by a purchasing agent as provided in the Town Charter.
In addition to the purchasing authority conferred herein, the
Purchasing Agent shall:
A. Minimum expenditures: act to procure for the Town the highest quality
in supplies and contractual services at the least expense to the Town.
B. Encourage competition: discourage uniform bidding and endeavor to
obtain as full and open competition as possible on all purchases and
sales.
C. Purchasing analysis: keep informed of current developments in the
field of purchasing, prices, market conditions and new products, and
secure for the Town the benefits of research done in the field of
purchasing by other governmental jurisdictions, national technical
societies, trade associations having national recognition and by private
businesses and organizations.
D. Forms: prescribe and maintain such forms as he shall find reasonably
necessary to the operation of this chapter.
E. Standard nomenclature: prepare and adopt a standard purchasing nomenclature
for using agencies and suppliers.
F. Bulk purchases: exploit the possibilities of buying in bulk so as
to take full advantage of discounts.
G. Federal and state tax exemptions: act so as to procure for the Town
all federal and state tax exemptions to which it is entitled.
H. Disqualification of bidders: have the authority to declare vendors
who default on their bids irresponsible bidders and to disqualify
them from receiving any business from the municipality for a stated
period of time.
The Purchasing Agent may establish, with the approval of the Mayor and after consultation with the heads of the departments concerned, and enforce standard specifications for all supplies, materials and equipment required by the several departments, offices and agencies of the Town, except as to the purchases and expenditures exempted by §
43-3A.
A. Capacity
of Agent. The Purchasing Agent shall enforce the written specifications
as may be adopted by this section of this chapter.
B. Consultation
with using agencies. The Purchasing Agent shall consult with the heads
and other officials of the using agencies to determine their precise
requirements and shall endeavor to prescribe those standards which
meet the needs of the majority of such agencies.
C. Nature of specifications. All specifications shall be definite and
certain and shall permit competition; exception: provided, however,
that the provisions of this subsection shall not apply to proprietary
goods or services as determined by the Purchasing Agent.
Except in cases of emergency, the Purchasing Agent shall not
issue any order for delivery on a contract or open-market purchase
until the Comptroller or another official designated by the Comptroller
shall have certified that there is a sufficient unencumbered appropriation
balance to pay the amount of such order.
All purchases of and contracts for supplies and contractual
services and all sales of personal property which has become obsolete
and unusable shall, except as specifically provided herein, be based
wherever possible on a competitive selection process in accordance
with this chapter.
A. Purchases by competitive bid.
(1) Bids for clearly specified goods and services shall be used for the
purchase of the following:
(a)
Goods: any and all articles, whether purchased or leased, furnished
to or used by any department. Examples include, but are not limited
to, supplies, equipment, materials, fuel oil, telecommunication equipment,
furniture, hardware, etc. (Lease of goods is subject to Town Council
approval.)
(b)
Contractual services: all services that result in a measurable
end product as defined by bid specifications, including but not limited
to all services used in the process of building, altering, maintaining,
improving or demolishing any Town-owned property, structure, building
or public infrastructure, but excluding architectural, engineering
and other design services, construction services and other professional/special
services as defined in this chapter. Examples of contractual services
include, but are not limited to, electrical work, road resurfacing,
sewer repair, building demolition, equipment maintenance, waste disposal
services and cleaning services.
(c)
Commodity: an item or like kind of items of trade or commerce,
including goods, wares and merchandise of any kind.
(d)
Insurance: property casualty, errors and omissions, employee
life insurance, public officials, general/commercial liability and
similar insurances.
(e)
Leases of real property: subject to Town Council approval. The
Town Council may also approve the use of the RFP process for leases
of real property.
(2) The Purchasing Agent shall award the bid to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder in accordance with §
43-11H of this chapter.
B. Purchase by request for proposal.
(1) Requests for proposal may be used to purchase customized or highly
specialized goods, or special or professional services that cannot
be clearly specified and/or are highly technical, including, but not
limited to: consulting, professional, legal, financial, personal and
technical services. Examples include, but are not limited to, architects,
auditors, attorneys, physicians, real estate appraisers, brokers,
actuaries, engineers, computer programmers, professional construction
managers, and systems designers.
(2) The Purchasing Agent shall award the proposal to the vendor who will
provide the best value to the Town. The principal consideration shall
be the vendor's superior experience and competence and its ability
to provide the highest level of service at a reasonable price.
(3) Special services shall also include employee health insurance and/or
third-party administrator of self-insured plan. Such services shall
be the subject of a request for proposal at a time determined by the
Personnel Director but not later than every five years. An award is
subject to compliance with relevant law and collective bargaining
agreements.
(4) A Department seeking to use the request for proposal process shall
notify the Town Council, by letter, prior to putting out the bid.
The request for proposal process shall be deemed to be approved by
the Town Council unless it votes to object within 30 days of receipt
of the notice.
C. Purchase of services by professional two-part bid.
(1) If the Purchasing Agent determines that qualifications and price
should be given equal consideration, it shall use a two-part submission
process.
(2) The two-part bid requires the submittal of Part A and Part B by the
bidders in separate envelopes. Part A shall include, as specified
in the bid documents, the bidder qualifications and proposal for the
scope of services. Part B shall include, as specified in the bid documents,
the bidder's proposed price. Part B shall remain unopened until the
bidders have been evaluated and ranked based upon the Part A submittal.
After scoring and ranking the proposals, Part B shall be opened and
ranked. The two scores shall be combined and the award shall be made
to the bidder with the highest score.
D. Purchase of services by qualifications-based selection as prequalification.
(1) The qualification-based selection procedure may be used only with
prior approval by the Purchasing Agent and the Town Council.
(2) A request for qualifications may be utilized in the prequalification
of proposers in the purchase of special or professional services,
or bidders in a competitive bidding process, where it is determined
by the Purchasing Department that such services are unique or that
the nature of the project requires selection criteria primarily influenced
by the past experience of a proposer in similar or related projects.
Once bidders have been qualified, a request for proposal or request
for bids will be issued.
(3) When a Department wishes to use the qualifications-based selection
process to prequalify bidders, it shall submit a written request to
the Purchasing Agent with the rationale for using this process.
(4) With the approval of the Town Council, the qualifications-based selection
process may be used without the secondary RFP process. If used, a
proposal will be accepted based upon qualifications and negotiations
regarding price will occur subsequent to the selection.
E. Qualifications-based selection process with a request for proposal
for school construction projects: architects and construction managers.
Definition: "Qualifications-based selection" means a method for purchasing
architectural and construction managers services by initially pre-qualifying
bidders prior to obtaining a price proposal in accordance with Public
Act 08-169, § 17. Such process initially requires the submission of professional
qualifications, demonstrated business experience, specific project
experience, evidence of business integrity, and professional competence.
QBS process is used for prequalification of a pool of not more than
four most responsible qualified proposers. Following the prequalification
process, the proposals shall be evaluated and awarded in accordance
with the state statute.
Contracts obtained by competitive selection by the State of
Connecticut, the federal government or a cooperative association of
municipalities may be utilized by the Purchasing Agent when the best
interests of the Town would be served thereby.