Contracts & Purchasing Academy

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

Overview: In early December 2012 the Monterey County Board of Supervisors held their annual Department Head Workshop and Strategic Initiatives planning session. The outcome of the session was an overwhelming and unanimous expressed common interest in improving the County’s contracting process. The County Administrative Office was given the task and immediately assigned an internal Management Analyst to begin an internal review and analysis of its existing contracts & purchasing procedures and policies to identify those areas in need of improvement. In late 2013, the findings of the internal review was delivered to the Board of Supervisors and upon a unanimous vote by the board, the board gave approval to hire and engage the support of an outside consultant to assist the County with the development of a Contracts & Purchasing Academy. The Monterey County Board of Supervisors and twenty-seven (27) County Department Heads agreed that improving the County’s contracts and purchasing process was a top priority. To support this strategy the Monterey County Board of Supervisors approved the development of an internal Contracts & Purchasing Academy, along with the implementation of a Contract Tracking System. The Contracts & Purchasing Development Team proudly launched its first Cohort #1 on September 22, 2014 and graduated its first successful class on October 10, 2014. Since the implementation and successful release and completion of the first Contracts & Purchasing Academy cohort, we’ve successfully graduated four (4) additional classes with a total of 125 graduating participants.