By Jeannie Fanning
September 20, 2010

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, through its partnership with the U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance, is pleased to announce a new office supplies contract that supports local business, provides great pricing, offers significant savings and acts as the best overall solution for office supplies. The U.S. Communities administered office supplies contract was awarded by its lead public agency, the County of Los Angeles, to Independent Stationers, Inc. on September 1. Independent Stationers is a cooperative of 250 locally-owned independent office supply dealers. The new office supplies contract took effect September 1.

U.S. Communities is the leading national government purchasing cooperative, providing world class government procurement resources and solutions to local and state government agencies, school districts (K-12), higher education institutes, and nonprofits looking for the best overall government supplier pricing. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, and others are sponsors of U.S. Communities.

The new contract delivers innovative office supply solutions to public agencies nationwide. Independent Stationers was established in 1977 and is an industry leading office supplies provider with advanced distribution capabilities and centers located throughout the United States. Some of the new benefits offered through the Independent Stationers contract are:

• Locally based service, sales and support via 250 community based office supply dealers
• An opportunity for mayors and cities participating public agencies to save money, support local business, create local jobs and enhance the local tax base
• An opportunity to meet and exceed locally established goals for participation of MWBE businesses
• National distribution and delivery
• Access to over 20,000 office supplies products
• Online ordering, next day delivery, no minimum order limits, e-payment options including p-card, EDI and ERP integration
• Free delivery
• A fixed price contract to facilitate transparency and public agency pricing audits
• Access to a competitively solicited contract awarded by Los Angeles County, providing Independent Stationers- best overall pricing and primary offering guarantee to protect the interests of mayors, cities, and all participating public agencies

To learn more about the products and solutions provided under the new U.S. Communities office supplies contract, contact Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland with the Conference of Mayors at kweyland@usmayors.org, or Jeannie Fanning at jfanning@usmayors.org, or visit the U.S. Communities website directory at http://uscommunities.isgroup.org or contact 1-877-872-8599 to speak with U.S. Communities directly.