Increasing Stewardship of Public Resources: Building a Surplus Program Pilot

About the Program

Category: Financial Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

The problem of surplus is one common to every public agency. Everyone complains- no one steps up. Multnomah County Purchasing decided to take on this problem because we believe there is a relationship between surplus property and the larger life cycle of the goods and services we purchase. Purchasing initiated a pilot surplus property program, with specific goals and outcomes: 1) Determine how much surplus property existed 2) Determine what kinds of surplus property needed to be dealt with 3) Expand and educate the network of stakeholders, initially internally, around this problem 4) Build relationships with external governmental entities that likely had the same issues - build a regional network of solutions and sources, and find the best solutions so everyone could adopt them. The results of the pilot surplus program surprised everyone. We collected 113,548 pounds of surplus worth $344,031 with a ROI of 4.16. We created a network of new partners, including a number of governmental entities, to sustainably deal with this issue, in a cost conscious way that positively impacted our community. .Along the way we developed new methods and a comprehensive process for identifying, processing, recycling and reusing surplus property within the County.