Agencies
Services
State Use Meeting Minutes - December 4, 2013
December 4, 2013 Minutes
- Call to Order
Chairman Loftus welcomed the Committee 1:30 p.m.
Chairman Loftus asked Brynn Henderson to do the roll call.
- Roll Call
Present at the meeting were the following members: ( see attached)
Mitzi Loftus
Seymour Bryson
David Dailey
Christine M. Dickey
Richard W. Gloede
Kacy Bassett
Chairman Loftus announced that there was a quorum present.
- Approval of the Minutes of the November 21, 2013 Meeting
Chairman Loftus asked if everyone had a chance to read the minutes and if there were any corrections, she stated that one correction was made in section six that Sharla Roberts name was changed to Chairman Loftus. The Chair called for a motion to approve the Minutes from the November 21, 2013 Meeting.
Motion to Approve: Member Dailey
Second: Member GloedeTally of Votes: Members unanimously approved the November 21, 2013 Meeting Minutes
- Review of and Vote on Proposed Contracts ( see attachment for list of contracts)
Chairman Loftus asked if everyone had a chance to review the list of contracts and request letters to be voted on and asked Corrie Smith to read the contracts aloud.
All contracts for vote were read aloud by Corrie Smith.
Chairman Loftus asked if there were any question.
Chairman Loftus stated that if there were no questions and called for a motion to approve the list of contracts read aloud by Corrie Smith.
Motion to Approve: Member Dickey
Second: Member Gloede
Tally of Votes: Members unanimously approved the contracts read aloud by Corrie Smith.Chairman Loftus stated that we knew of these contracts but they were not ready for the last meeting and because of the Open Meetings Act we could not put them on there, in the future we will include them on the vote sheet, we can always remove them.
Corrie Smith asked without the dollar amount?
Chairman Loftus asked if Chief Council Ellen Daley was in the meeting in Chicago.
Chief Procurement of Diversity at University of Illinois, Sharla Roberts answered no; that she was the only person in the room.
Chairman Loftus stated that she would discuss it with Legal Council Ellen Daley and will get back with Corrie Smith.
- New Business:
Chairman Loftus introduced Chief Procurement Officer of Higher Education Ben Bagby.
Chief Procurement Officer of Higher Education, Ben Bagby stated that at the last meeting he thought that the completed list of the workshops would be ready for this meeting.
Chairman Loftus stated that we would have it for the January 8th meeting.
Chief Procurement Officer Ben Bagby stated that he was at a meeting with the universities and said that he would like to apply the preference in a reasonable manner, he had a couple of objections but that was expected. There were some union issues, but we're not talking about outsourcing something that we're already buying from vendors. They were also concerned about the pricing, he explained that the committee is for this purpose to make sure that the prices were reasonable and you do have an opportunity to streamline the process because you could work directly with the vendor to come to terms and you don't have to go through the bidding process.
Chairman Loftus asked Sharla Roberts if she would like to speak.
Chief Procurement of Diversity at University of Illinois, Sharla Roberts stated no, that she was at the meeting with Ben and it went over very well.
Chairman Loftus asked if there were other questions.
Member Bryson stated that this has been an area of concern for the last 20 years. Would it be possible for the business manager to go above the purchasing agent, to the higher education officials and attempt to do business, maybe go to the Illinois Board of Higher Education?
Chief Procurement Officer Ben Bagby stated that he sort of brought that up yesterday, it is not so much the purchasing agents but the people that need the items. He stated that there was a meeting held today by IPHEC, Illinois Public Higher Education Cooperative, unfortunately they did not invite him, but the consortium is made up of university vice presidents and they oversee the purchasing group, so they do joint purchasing. Maybe we could inquire in that group, maybe we could raise it in that way, that group is for all the universities, they get together at the vice presidential level, he thinks that might be a good start.
Member Bryson agreed.
Chief Procurement of Diversity at University of Illinois, Sharla Roberts stated that she is with the University of Illinois and one of her roles is to insure that at the U of I we adhere to all the diversity acts, like the sheltered workshops, Business Enterprise Program (BEP) and Small Business. U of I will be looking at increasing business with the sheltered workshops as well as BEP and Small Business.
Chief Procurement Officer Ben Bagby stated that he is over the entire universities.
Member Bryson stated that a lot of the universities meet their goal by using minorities, 10% of their goals comes from the minority or female agencies, then they give lip service to State Use for the last 20 years. We even have people come on campus to try and talk, if you leave it up to the local officials and it's not coming from the President or Board of Higher Education they give lip service to them. A lot of work has to be done but you have to start at the Vice President level or higher or you will get lip service.
Chief Procurement Officer Ben Bagby stated that in this area he has already told the universities we are going to take more actions in those areas. One of the problems with the universities is that they are a hard ship to change course. I have been mentioning and selling them, you have to get them in that mind set. You are right, you have to have the buy in of management as well and if you don't have that then people will just go their own ways because it's easier. He was looking at a furniture solicitation at one of the universities, they will not be purchasing the mattresses for the dorms, I did look at the State Use list and didn't notice that, I might have been remembering Corrections. He is thinking of ways to diversify who we are dealing with and this one was one of those things that jumped out at me.
Member Bryson said that we have been talking about this for twenty years.
Chairman Loftus asked if there was any other new business or other comments from public members that want to speak.
- Future Meeting Dates
Chairman Loftus states that the next meeting is scheduled for January 8th at 1:30. We will try to put all contracts that need to be voted on that could potentially be voted on the vote sheet.
Next meeting date has been schedules for January 8 at 1:30 p.m.
- Adjournment
Chairman Loftus called for motion to adjourn.
Motion to Approve: Member Bryson
Second: Member Gloede
Tally of Votes: Members unanimously approved the motion to adjourn.
Chairman Loftus announced the motion to adjourn was approved and adjourned the meeting at: 2:10 p.m.