U.S. Communities Can Save Your City $$$$
By Jeffrey Bean
January 11, 2010
Public entities purchase billions of dollars per year in goods and services and are continually looking for new solutions to help them meet their purchasing requirements and needs. Government agencies – as keepers of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars – also want a good return on investment for the goods they purchase. During this time of diminishing local government resources and federal and state deficits, local agencies need programs that help save precious taxpayer resources. The U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance does just that.
Program Elements
U.S. Communities is a non-profit instrumentality of government established by public agencies to reduce the cost of purchased goods and to streamline the purchasing process. This program is nationally sponsored by The U.S. Conference of Mayors, National Association of Counties, National League of Cities, the Association of School Business Officials International and the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing.
Through U.S. Communities, counties, cities and public agencies such as schools and special districts can piggyback on competitively solicited contracts, thus taking advantage of the enormous collective purchasing power of thousands of U.S. local government agencies.
U.S. Communities helps provide public agencies options with regard to the acquisition of the most commonly purchased goods.
Advantages of Program
The key advantage is cost savings for public agencies. Public agencies gain access to the national purchasing power of all local government public agencies through U.S. Communities. Public agencies secure the following key advantages:
- Competitively solicited contracts by a lead public agency
- Most favorable public agency pricing
- No cost to the public agency to participate
- Nationally sponsored by leading associations and purchasing organizations
- Broad range of high quality products
- Aggregated purchasing power of public agencies nationwide
- Managed by public purchasing professionals
Available to all counties, cities, schools, special districts, townships, villages, boroughs, other local governments and state agencies, as well as non-profit agencies that support local and state governments.
In addition, U.S. Communities works closely with public agencies to understand their buying needs and the needs of thousands of other public purchasing agents, purchasing managers, purchasing directors, and procurement officers. U.S. Communities is constantly expanding its product offering to public agencies and acts as a strategic sourcing option for local government.
The purchasing function plays a critical role in helping local governments save money on the goods purchased by these agencies each year. The Conference offers U.S. Communities as a successful, proven tool to help cities achieve this important mission. We hope you will explore and evaluate this program for your community. We know you will find tangible program benefits.
For more information, contact Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland at kweyland@usmayors.org or 301-460-5251 for additional information or on how to register your city. You can also visit the website at www.uscommunities.org.
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