From the Town Administrator's FY 2027 Budget narrative, each department's story is worth sharing.
General Purpose
Procurement for the Town of Franklin is centralized and is responsible for ensuring that services, supplies, equipment and construction related activities are procured in an efficient and cost effective manner. The mission of Central Services is to proactively review the status of shared copiers and mailing equipment to ensure that the Town/School shared equipment will meet the demands of its users. Central Services budget also covers costs associated with the Town’s permanent record storage/retrieval and postage.
Core Functions
● Procure supplies, services, contractors and consultants following the requirements of Massachusetts procurement laws while providing efficiency and best value to Town Departments and Staff, and ultimately, to the taxpayers.
● Provide guidance and training on procurement steps to management.
● Provide a transparent and open procurement process that demonstrates Franklin’s commitment to providing competitive opportunities that are fair to all bidders.
● Proactively maintain status on shared copiers and mailing equipment to ensure that the Town/School shared equipment meets the demands of its users.
Staffing
● One (1) Chief Procurement Officer
Strategic Initiatives & Accomplishments
● During the past Fiscal Year, conducted 95 procurements through the use of Invitations for Bids, Requests for Proposals, Cooperative Contracts, Collective Contracts, OSD Statewide Contracts, and Requests for Written Quotes which totaled over $31,000,000 in contracted services and supplies for the Town.
● Publicly auctioned surplus supplies through the Municibid platform totaling over $21,000, which was returned to the General Fund.
● Transitioned maintenance of procurement records to a digital format, thereby, creating a more efficient manner of maintaining records per the Massachusetts Public Records Law guidelines.
● Provided procurement training to personnel who are involved in making purchasing decisions to ensure that they are knowledgeable about processes and procedures under Massachusetts law.
FY27 Requested Budget Highlights
● Begin transition from purchased to leased copiers by replacement of the seven (7) oldest copiers which are out of contract and difficult to obtain replacement parts for. Remaining copiers owned by the Town will move to a lease arrangement over the next two years, which will ensure that all departments have copiers that are current and in good working order. Estimated FY27 costs to lease these copiers is $25,705.20, which will be paid from the Central Services Budget.
FY27 Requested Budget Summary
In the past, the Town purchased copiers and would keep them in use until we were no longer able to obtain replacement parts for repair. Moving to a leased copier arrangement will ensure that all Town copiers are current and in good working order. Leased copier costs include all general maintenance and service costs each year of the lease term. The cost also includes replacement toner and staples. If the request for funding to move the seven oldest copiers out of service and replace them with leased copiers is denied, the Town will incur greater costs as the older copiers are out of contract resulting in service charges. In addition, it is extremely difficult to obtain replacement parts for the older copiers which could lead to departments not having a working copier.
The PDF of this section -
For the full FY 2027 budget narrative - https://www.franklinma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/8912/FY27-Budget-Narrative-FINAL-1
The FY 2027 budget information can be found