Hi all,
With the lack of availability of vehicles through BidBuy, Sourcewell and SBC we are falling behind in our vehicle replacements. Does anyone have any pointers on best ways to do an emergency purchase authorization? Having never done one before, how does one navigate this? Is it best to go to the dealers first get prices of vehicles on the lot, then go to the board with the request?
Thanks
Mike Prybell | Fleet Shop Manager
FOREST PRESERVE DISTRICT
WILL COUNTY
22606 South Cherry Hill Road | Joliet, IL. 60433
Email: mikeprybell@fpdwc.org
Phone: 815.722.8915 | Internal Extension: 615
We have had luck with going to the board, explaining the issue, and receiving authorization to order vehicles with a "not to exceed" a certain amount of money. This has allowed us to order vehicles quickly and not get jammed up with order deadlines. I hope this helps.
At the start of each new fiscal year, we try to bring as many agenda items as possible (containing vehicle/equipment purchases over $50K that require board approval) through committee (in the first few months) with the recommended action giving us approval to “spend up to the budgeted amount” with an “approved vendor”. This way, when contracts open we will already have a PO ready to go.
We have had some emergency opportunities, such as a vehicle on a dealer lot, that we wanted to purchase. Its rare that this happens, but we’ve gone to our director to get village manager approval to act on the purchase and then after the fact bring an agenda item through our committee for a ratification of expenditures. We also have to deal with Finance with emergency POs to obtain one quickly and see if they are able to get a check printed any quicker.