Volume buying is usually a key to getting a good price, but many cities and towns don't buy enough of many items to get price breaks. But pooling the purchasing power of public entities is the purpose of the U.S. Communities Purchasing Alliance, a nonprofit effort endorsed by the N.C. League of Municipalities.
U.S. Communities, a nonprofit instrumentality of governments, helps cities, towns and other levels of government save money by combining the purchasing power of public agencies nationwide.
Here's how U.S. Communities operates. One public agency - for example, a city or a county - takes the lead in soliciting requests for proposals for a product or type of product. Bids are sought from vendors across the country. An advisory group of the U.S. Communities alliance helps the local agency with the proposal. After the local contract is awarded, it is reviewed to determine if it can be used on a national basis. Once accepted on a national basis, any public agency that registers to participate in U.S. Communities can buy products under the terms of the contract.
To participate, a public agency registers on line at www.uscommunities.org . Registration includes consent to a master intergovernmental cooperative purchasing agreement with the various lead agencies and is intended to meet the formalities of participation in the program. One registration allows participation in all lead agency contracts
There are no costs or fees to participate. There are no restrictions on the amount or size of a public agency order.
Examples of products available through U.S. Communities include the following:
• Office supplies - Office Depot
• Carpet and flooring - Interface & Milliken
• Comm/Data - GrayBar
• Electrical - GrayBar
• Janitorial supplies - Zep
• Office Furniture - Steelcase, Herman Miller, Knoll, Haworth
• Computers - GTSI
• Office Machines - Savin/Ricoh
• Procurement Cards - American Express
• Roofing repair and maintenance - Hickman Community Services, LLC (HCS).
Founding co-sponsors of U.S. Communities include the National League of Cities, the National Association of County Commissioners, the U. S. Conference of Mayors, Association of School Business Officials, and the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing.
Approximately 75 N.C. municipalities have or are purchasing goods through the U.S. Communities alliance.
