El Paso City Council Work Session on Procurement and Contract Administration - August 18, 2025
El Paso City Council Work Session on Procurement Policy and Vendor Outreach
The El Paso City Council held a work session on August 18, 2025, from 9:35 AM to 3:43 PM (with an executive session from 10:39 AM to 3:41 PM) to review the third and final session on the Procurement Sourcing Policy and Process, focusing on contract administration and vendor outreach. No public comments were heard. The meeting included detailed presentations and councilmember discussion on performance evaluations, change orders, supplier outreach, and procurement timelines.
Discussion Items
- Contract Administration Overview: Claudia Garcia, Purchasing and Strategic Sourcing, presented the key functions of contract administration: record keeping, compliance, performance evaluation, and conflict resolution. The user department designates a contract administrator responsible for day-to-day contract management.
- Vendor Performance Evaluation (VPR) System: Garcia explained the 0–10 scoring scale (10 = significantly exceeds all terms; 7–8 = meets obligations; 0–4 = unsatisfactory). Evaluations are stored in a central repository and used for responsibility checks on future bids. Councilmember Trejo asked about typical scores and how non-compliance (e.g., missed timelines) is assessed. Anthony DeKazer (Mass Transit) gave an example: a janitorial contractor dropping below required staffing would receive a lower score.
- Change Orders and Contract Modifications: Change orders can be triggered by changes in contract time, amount, or scope. State law limits change orders to 25% of contract value. Purchasing Director and City Engineer have delegation authority up to $100,000 for construction. Councilmember Canales asked about value engineering through equivalent products; city staff confirmed deductive change orders are used when cost savings are achieved.
- Performance Report Delivery: Councilmember Acevedo raised concerns that some vendors have never received their VPR reports, calling it a basic failure in communication. Staff acknowledged the issue and noted that improved training for contract administrators is a planned initiative. Councilmember Chávez questioned the fairness of the VPR system when contractors are evaluated on factors beyond their control (e.g., bid price set too low, delayed project starts). Staff said they review each contract on its own terms and can adjust expectations based on agreed schedules.
- Timing of VPR Completion: Councilmember Niño clarified that VPRs are completed only after the project is fully finished. Staff explained they use weekly project meetings with two-week look-aheads to monitor progress and adjust schedules.
- Supply El Paso and Vendor Outreach: Nicole Cody (City Manager's Office) presented the Supply El Paso initiative (launched January 2024), a multi-agency effort to strengthen the local procurement economy. The initiative is based on a playbook developed with the Aspen Institute and Drexel University. The 13th annual Procurement Expo (2025) had over 1,700 attendees. The next Expo is scheduled for April 7-8, 2026, and is free to help local businesses access contracts and cooperative purchasing.
- Certifications for MWBE/Veteran-Owned Businesses: Councilmember Trejo asked why the city does not use those certifications in procurement. Staff responded that it would require policy changes and funding source considerations; council could explore that further if desired.
- Procurement Timelines and Delays: Councilmember Acevedo expressed strong frustration with the length of procurement (e.g., nine months for a simple park project). He asked for industry benchmarks and suggested council policy to set maximum timelines. City Manager Dionne Mack explained that delays often stem from departments developing scope of work and quality control, not just purchasing. She committed to providing a report with average procurement times by category and comparisons to peer cities. Councilmember Chávez asked about rules for time between bid opening and award, and for contract start after award. Staff said there are no specific rules, as it depends on procurement complexity; Chávez suggested considering benchmarks from other cities like TechStock.
- Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award: Garcia announced that El Paso received this award for the 11th consecutive year, one of 87 cities nationally and along with Austin and San Antonio as the only large Texas cities.
- Industry Meetings: Councilmember Maldonado-Rocha expressed interest in restarting industry meetings with vendors who do not currently bid on city contracts, to identify barriers and improve competition. She volunteered to host such meetings.
Key Outcomes
- No formal actions were taken on the procurement presentation; it was informational only. Staff will continue working on initiatives including: improving contract administrator training, providing average procurement timeline data, and enhancing vendor communication.
- Executive Session Items: The council reconvened from executive session at 3:41 PM and took the following action:
- EX1 (Claim of Willie Jenkins – Claim 786): Motion made and seconded to authorize the City Attorney and City Manager to deny the claim. Vote passed unanimously (Representative Boyar Trejo absent).
- EX2 through EX10: No action taken on legal consultations, economic development discussions, real property, or personnel matters.
- Meeting adjourned at 3:43 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Thank you. May I would you like to convene the work session? Do we need a call for the vote on closing this one? Oh, yes. All in favor to adjourn the special meeting? Hi. Anyone opposed? And the special mass transit meeting is adjourned at 9 34 a.m. Would you like to complete the work session, sir? Please. Thank you. Good morning. This is a work session of the El Paso City Council for Monday, August 18th, 2025. Mayor Johnson is present and presiding in council chambers along with representative Acevedo, Representative Madonado Rocha, Representative Oriatrejo, Representative Nino, alternate Mayor Pro Tempiero, Representative Limon, and Representative Canales. It is 9 35 a.m. Mayor, we have a quorum. Okay. Good morning. Item number one is presentation and discussion on the overview of the procurement sourcing policy and procurement process. This is session three, contract administration and vendor outreach. Good morning. Good morning, Claudia Garcia with Purchasing and Strategic Sourcing Department. So I'm sadly gonna inform you that this is our last series of session. Yes, so um if I take thank you. So far you have been into prior sessions. This is our last one. Uh we have completed purchasing functions, procurement and strategic sourcing policy overview. We also went over a procurement process overview, and today we're just going over contract administration and vendor uh outreach. So we're gonna jump uh to contract administration and why this is important. Uh, because it ensures project success. Also, it minimizes disputes as uh when proactively done, uh we can communicate with uh suppliers to help prevent misunderstandings if something is not completely clear in the contract, so we can get ahead of that. It is also uh the intent of contract administration to manage uh risks, improve compliance, and uh facilitate uh communication. So we are showing you this as a cycle, right? But I'm gonna be presenting in a more linear way. Uh but in essence, these are some of the main functions of contract administration. Record keeping, contract compliance, performance evaluation, conflict resolution through the life of a contract. And if you have questions, just yeah, I was gonna say council members, if you have questions, just let me know. We'll we'll let you clause it. Thank you. So for the city of El Paso, the user department, it is a contract administrator. So each department it is going to uh select who's gonna be the best candidate to administer uh a contract. Some of the key responsibilities for a contract administrator, it is to keep records, also to ensure that a contract is in compliance from both parties, the city and the vendor uh site. They all they are also in charge of a conflict resolution with uh an exception here. Uh so in a day-to-day, the contract administrator will be in charge of uh trying to resolve any conflict that can uh come up during the life of the contract. But if uh if uh an issue persists, now the contract administrator will contact purchasing so we can go ahead and uh start the cure process. And if uh later in the presentation, I'm gonna be giving you a summary of the cure uh process. Because tentatively we can potentially terminate uh a contract for default, meaning that the contractor is not performing according to terms of the contract. Again, some more responsibilities of the contract administrator reviews that everything it is in compliance when it has to be with deliverables. They have to make sure they are paying uh in time and correctly to the contractor for the services uh that have been rendered. Documenting and monitoring, and also contract administrator, it is in charge of a close out of each contract that they have in charge.
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