Explanation
BACKGROUND: To waive the provisions of formal competitive bidding and to modify the existing citywide contracts for the option to purchase office chairs for various City agencies, with Water being the largest user agency. Expansion of this universal term contract will save the City money by including additional chairs at the same deep discount offered chairs in the original contract. Since the City will not be buying large volumes of chairs, this expansion allows economies of scale that would not otherwise be available. In order to take advantage of the expansion pricing, it was necessary to negotiate and add an award for additional models of chairs already awarded under these contracts.
Designated under the original contracts: Items A are the basic chairs without arms that were felt applicable for City use. Items B, C, and D were arm options, and hard wood floor casters for these same chairs. Items E expanded the offering of the chairs in A to chairs in the same Series that were noted in Items A, e.g., if Item A was a high back chair, Item E might offer a low back version of the same chair. Some suppliers did not complete the Item E options on their original bid, but they were willing to extend the same discount to other chairs in the same Series. It is in the City's best interest to expand the use of these contracts, so the City can take advantage of these deep discounts for a wider variety of chairs.
In addition, a problem developed such that Office Depot could not honor their bid on their original contract for Item 10, since the Manufacturer, Sit-On-It, would not allow them to sell their product in our district. Therefore, this ordinance is to modify the Office Depot contract by canceling Item No. 10, and to modify the contract with Continental Office Environments, to add Items 10A, B, C, D, and E.
The Purchasing Office opened formal bids on June 5, 2003. The Purchasing Office advertised and solicited competitive bids in accord...
Click here for full text