By Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland
July 30, 2007

U.S. Communities is a nonprofit instrumentality of government founded in 1999 and comprised of more than 28,000 public agencies across the country. Participating agencies, which increase in number by about 400 each month, spend approximately $1 billion a year on products and services via contracts and suppliers of U.S. Communities.

There is no cost for your city to participate. And it’s ideal for all sizes of organizations because there is no minimum or maximum number of dollars that must be spent. Plus, it saves time and resources because agencies don’t have to go out to bid for products when they use U.S. Communities’ vendors.

U.S. Communities’ participants pay less for supplies and goods than they have in the past and much less than those outside the program pay for the same product. Plus, the contracts U.S. Communities has with suppliers save agencies time in terms of researching the best price or learning if a company sells what they need.

The cost-saving mechanism not only proves itself on the bottom line, but shows taxpayers and voters that government is being frugal, smart and conscientious. Those three attributes are often not associated with government when cost overruns and $50 screwdrivers still make headlines.

U.S. Communities is available to counties, cities, schools, higher education, special districts, townships, villages, boroughs, other local government and state agencies, as well as nonprofit agencies which support local and state governments.

“La Mesa has participated in the California Communities purchasing program for almost ten years now and we have benefited greatly from the cost and time savings,” said Rachel R. Levens, purchasing officer for La Mesa.

By pooling purchasing power of public agencies, U.S. Communities provides a purchasing forum for public agencies, searches for quality products at competitive prices and receives bulk volume discounts. U.S. Communities is continuously checking with agencies to find out what they are buying so contracts can be solicited with suppliers. As the program grows, so does the list of offerings.

Clearly, the cost benefit is the primary reason agencies have joined U.S. Communities. Other benefits include:

• Competitive contracts

• No cost to the agency to participate

• No minimum annual purchase

• Wide range of quality products

• Wide range of suppliers

• Aggregated purchasing power of public agencies nationwide

U.S. Communities is nationally sponsored by the National Association of Counties, National League of Cities, the Association of School Business Officials International, National Institute of Governmental Purchasing and U.S. Conference of Mayors.

For more information about U.S. Communities, go to the website www.uscommunities.org or contact Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland at 301-460-5251 or send e-mail to kweyland@usmayors.org.