The City of Sierra Vista Procurement Division provides a service that maximizes the effectiveness of the tax dollar while maintaining timely and adequate support of the City’s needs for materials and services.  Procurement assists departments/divisions in obtaining needed goods and services for the best possible value.  They also develop bid and proposal packages to distribute to prospective vendors, evaluate submitted bids and proposals, and develop award recommendations and documents.  All awards are made to the most responsible/responsive bidder.

In an average year, Procurement issues approximately 2,500 purchase orders with an estimated value of $20 million.  Because taxpayer money is involved, Procurement is guided in its procurement procedures by the State of Arizona Procurement Code and the City of Sierra Vista Procurement Code.  The City of Sierra Vista uses a fully automated centralized purchasing system.  The City allows several different methods of purchase, including purchase orders, P-cards, petty cash, check request, and open or blanket purchase orders.  The City also has a Cooperative Purchasing Agreement with the State of Arizona, Maricopa County, City of Tucson, Cochise County, Sierra Vista School District and several others.  The City is a member of the Mohave Educational Services Cooperative, Strategic Alliance for Volume Expenditures (SAVE), HGAC and also buys off GSA contracts.  We actively participate in these agreements for many of our commonly used items and specialty needs, when in the best interest of the City.

Offers are solicited through formal and informal procedures:

• The formal bidding process is used for any acquisition of goods and services valued at more than $50,000.  These will be in the form of an Invitation for Bid or a Request for Proposal.  Formal advertising is required.
• The informal bidding process is used for any acquisition of goods and services valued from $5,000 to $49,999.  This is an open market process where at least three signed competitive quotes are obtained in the form of a Request for Quotation.  Formal advertising is not required.
• Purchases less than $5,000 will be solicited by telephone, mail, facsimile, e-mail, or personal visit.  These quotations represent the most frequent type of buying transaction.  Whenever possible, these purchases will be based on competitive quotations.

Specifications describe the physical or functional characteristics of the material or service requested in the solicitation.  The specifications may include a technical description.  A brand name or equal may be used to describe the standard of quality, and is not intended to limit or restrict competition.  The standard of quality is not necessarily the best nor the least expensive of a particular commodity.

The City does not give special preference to local, minority, disadvantaged, or woman-owned businesses.  We do strive to ensure that fair and unbiased competition will result in the best value for the taxpayers.

Vendors may register on-line at the Procurement website @ www.SierraVistaAz.gov.  Please note, submitting a vendor application does not guarantee solicitation for your products or services.  Please visit our website regularly to check for listed solicitations and awards.