New County Procurement Chief Asks for Help

’s new procurement czar went before what could have been a den of lions Friday morning. He was there to explain changes he's making to the procurement system, and solicit advice on additional changes.

“We’ve revised how we’ll be scoring proposals on any project using a [request for proposals],” he said. “We can’t give you local preference, but we’ll give twice as many points based on local knowledge.”

Thiele and his staff are now rewriting the county’s procurement codes in the aftermath of allegations of abuse earlier this year. The problems resulted in several retirements and .

In the past, a committee using a 100-point scale evaluated contracts. Up to ten points could be given for fulfilling a complex requirement granting “local preference.” Thiele said both the scale and the complexity are a thing of the past.

“We cut the total points to 20 from 100 on the scoring,” Thiele said. “We want to keep it simple, and we’ll give more consideration for local experience.”

Instead of the “local” section getting 10 percent of the total score, under the new plan “local” is worth 20 percent.

“Local” will not simply be a judgment call by evaluators. “How many points will be much better defined,” he said. “And we in procurement will fill in some of those number before the [evaluation] committee meets, to cover objective criteria.”

The points system is only used to reach the final selection phase.

“The final ranking will not be by points, but by ranking. One, two and three,” he said.

Thiele was hired from Cape Coral where he was the procurement manager to help modify Sarasota’s rules and regulations. He promised to run a transparent operation.

“In our world of procurement," he said, "we like things to be clear cut, black and white.”