Your PUD

One of the first requests by new General Manager Rich Riazzi in 2006 was to identify potential improvement opportunities. Although many suggestions were provided, the District’s contracting process was mentioned the most. 

 In response to this feedback, nine focus groups were held, and 60 employees from throughout the District discussed what was working well and what could be improved with the contracting process. 

 In March 2007, a Contract Process Improvement Team met to identify, prioritize and recommend the best ways to streamline the contracting process. After much research and discussion, the team selected the following top three solutions:

(1) Streamline the contract approval process for low-risk projects.
 
(2) Enhance the board’s involvement in the contracting process.

• Provide board review during the budgeting process, and quarterly updates for all projects, while authorizing the general manager to approve the contracts that are within 15 percent of the authorized budget.

• Allow weekly contract approvals from the board.

• Authorize the general manager to award contracts that have no material exceptions. 

(3) Streamline the contract process by implementing certain steps in parallel rather than sequentially.

 The group determined that, on average, about 70 resolutions per year would be impacted by these recommendations (excluding exceptions such as budget changes, change orders, etc). The team believes that the contracting process can be shortened by up to two months with these changes. 

The board will have increased review of capital projects and the contracts related to those projects. The board will review a list of capital items, receive quarterly project updates and monitor ongoing contract activity. 

A temporary implementation team was formed to ensure that the recommendations were implemented.  In addition, it was recommended that another assessment of the District’s contracting process be done after the recommended changes have been in place for one year.