“Thank you for providing the back-up information and service to make our purchase of over 2 million dollars worth of high tech. police equipment as easy as purchasing office supplies. After spending several months researching equipment that not only met the Dept of Justice requirements, but also allowed for upgrades and easy maintenance, our police department knew exactly what they were looking for. Under the U.S. Communities contract with GTSI, I was confident that the City received competitive pricing and reasonable discounts on the items that the Long Beach Police Department required. With a list of 21 proposals received and in depth evaluations on three finalist, I know the City saved time and money on this critical project. GTSI provided excellent service for the entire length of the project (and your additional support is always appreciated).”

Jana Vargas
Purchasing Division Manager
City of Long Beach, CA.

“On Wednesday, November 24, 2004, a newly constructed, and nearly complete, section of science classrooms at Marshall Middle School (Wichita Public Schools, Kansas) exploded as a result of a gas leak. Fortunately, no students were in the building and there were minimal injuries to adults in the building.

However, because of the level of damage, the entire school was closed due to the possibility of damage to the infrastructure of the entire building. It thus was determined that all 477 students would have to be immediately relocated to other buildings in the Wichita school district. The Superintendent directed staff to make certain that the students would be able to return to their educational environment on Monday, November 29, 2004. Because of the damage to the entire building, it was also determined that none of the contents could be removed! Thus, students, building staff and administrators would have to return to a different school on Monday, November 29, 2004 without school and office supplies!

Administrative support staff of the Wichita Public Schools would have to "go shopping" over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to procure school and office supplies necessary to begin school! With the assistance of Kevin Juhring, US Communities Supplier Manager, representatives of Office Depot were contacted. They in turn contacted an Office Depot retail store in Wichita and made arrangements for Wichita Public School District staff to shop for miscellaneous school and office supplies on Saturday, November 27, 2004! Further, they made arrangements to ensure that we received the deepest discounts possible.

School began again for Marshall Middle school students at two different locations on Monday, November 29, 2004. We would not have been able to meet the educational needs of the students and staff of Marshall Middle school without the understanding and efforts of Kevin Juhring of US Communities and Leland Stanford of Office Depot. Thank you!”

Darren Muci
Division Director, Operations
Wichita Public Schools, KS.

“The U.S. Communities agreements are non-exclusive agreements that allow us the flexibility to choose to participate on any purchase that we deem it the best value for the City. We save administrative costs associated with bidding, obtain great pricing, are sometimes able to utilize local and minority firms and have the assistance of the U.S. Communities team to help us if we have any difficulties with the contracts.”

Deborah Green
Administrator of Purchasing
City of Indianapolis, IN.

“NLC is pleased to be a national sponsor of U.S. Communities . Working with and through our network of state municipal leagues, we are able to inform our members of the opportunities for both cost savings and administrative savings in typical government purchases, and to bring the best government pricing to the smallest of local governments.”

Donald Borut
Executive Director
National League of Cities

“Having been introduced to U.S. Communities last year and having had the opportunity to implement the program, I am amazed at the time savings the program has brought into the purchasing mainstream.”

Rick Morrissey
Purchasing Manager
City of Lafayette, IN.

“Why reinvent the wheel? With competitively bid national contracts that provide contract management as part of the package, small to large entities can save budgeted funds and those hard to document hidden administrative costs. Purchasing staff can be assigned to other projects making this a win - win situation for both staff and the taxpayer.”

Jeanette Bennett
President
Tri-County Michigan Purchasing Cooperative

“Thanks to U.S. Communities , our counties can save time by not having to issue their own competitive bids and, instead, can take advantage of well-negotiated, well priced existing competitively bid contracts. For each county that can add up to significant savings; collectively, that means counties in our state ----- and elsewhere ------ can save an enormous amount of time and money.”

Leslie Walsh
Office Financial Manager
Maryland Association of Counties.

“We have enjoyed an exceptional relationship with Office Depot and we in our department are thankful for the opportunity to make limited resources go farther. We are all taxpayers in Marion County. We take seriously our commitment to making our part of local government operate more efficiently and thriftily.”

Carol Wagner
Legal Secretary
Marion County, OR.

“The City of Fort Wayne, one of the original municipalities involved in the U.S. Communities program, continues to be a strong supporter. The City utilizes many of the available contracts, which provide an outstanding method of procurement for the City. We look forward to the growing success of U.S. Communities !”

Christopher Hertel, APP
Director of Purchasing
City of Fort Wayne

“We see your organization as a strategic tool to accomplish our mission for the schools of providing the right product, at the right time, for the right price.

It is an exciting time to be in purchasing with so many dynamic changes. My observations are that all entities are working to align themselves with these opportunities. Organizational paradigms are shifting, laws are changing to address this need, and U.S. Communities is prepared to fulfill the need.”

Deborah S. Groat
Supervisor of Purchasing
Anne Arundel County Public Schools

“When Detroit Public Schools implemented its new PeopleSoft Financial System in 2003, it realized that the "Direct Connect" functionality in its new eProcurement module would provide significant cost savings and operational efficiencies, since "Direct Connect" integrates the eProcurement functionality with a suppliers web operations, it provides access to Detroit Public Schools contract pricing maintained by the supplier, it provides "shopping cart" ease of ordering, and it provides input of the Purchase Order directly into the suppliers order entry system. This functionality is fully operational with Office Depot, Sportime, and Zep Manufacturing. Paper Purchase Orders have been eliminated, pricing errors on Purchase Orders have been eliminated, and supplies to schools are being received in hours and days after ordering, instead of weeks.”

Art Hanby
Interim Deputy Chief Contracting Officer
Detroit Public Schools, MI.

“Harford County Public Schools, Maryland is an active and consistent user of U.S. Communities contracts. They provide the best combination of value, price and service. We recently moved from a time consuming line item bid process for K-12 physical education supplies by utilizing the new Sportime contract. Our PE teachers can now order on line via e-procurement protocol and receive free shipping and delivery within 2-3 days. We charge the purchase to our credit card thereby embracing a "point-click-buy-charge" procurement process. By eliminating requisitions and purchase orders we have quantified an estimated savings of 80% on through-put processing time. This is a small example of a truly value added procurement process that assures the best return on investment for our customers and our taxpayers.”

John R. Miller
Director of Procurement and Supply Management
Harford County Public Schools

“We have been able to close a significant central warehouse operation and several storerooms by exploiting the U.S. Communities contracts. This has saved Anne Arundel County significant dollars. This used to be an expense of approximately $2 million annually. It also enabled us to eliminate a Junior Buyer position (retirement) which purchased mostly MRO and office supplies for the warehouse and storerooms saving approximately $50k in salary/benefits. Finally, our operational efficiency has greatly improved. It is difficult to put a $$ figure on this element. We did receive a rebate check from Office Depot this year for approximately $15k. We need to see more U.S. Communities contracts.”

Ted Lucas
Director - Dept. of Procurement Management
Miami-Dade County, FL.

“Results from our internal customer satisfaction survey show that our customers want two things from Purchasing. First save us time in the procurement process and second save us money. When Kansas City, Missouri uses a U.S. Communities contract we save both time and money for our customers.

City Council members from Kansas City were excited on returning from the National League of Cities conference last December in Nashville. The Council men and women learned that there was money to be saved by piggy backing on a U.S. Communities contract. I was pleased to tell our Council people that the City was using U.S. Communities and our Council people are pleased that Kansas City is participating in a program sponsored and endorsed by their national organization.”

Ray Burnett
Commissioner of Purchases and Supplies
Kansas City, MO.