The Springfield school board voted 5-2 to approve a copier agreement, despite concerns raised by a local business owner.
Gregory Tigges, president of X Document Solutions of Springfield, Inc., questioned why the district negotiated pricing through a cooperative agreement instead of requesting bids directly from businesses.
"We would like the opportunity to allow an opening so that we could process and put together a formal bid so that the district can decide whether or not they're getting the best value for what they're investing," said Tigges, who owns the local Xerox store.
Tigges spoke at the start of a special board meeting Wednesday, called so the board could discuss several contracts requiring immediate action.
It spurred the board to ask questions about the process. There was also brief talk of delaying a final decision so the district could determine whether the proposed agreement offered the best pricing.
Chief Financial Officer Steve Chodes said the district's current copier lease expires at the end of the month. The district negotiated pricing for new copiers -- which it will eventually own -- through the Association of Educational Purchasing Agencies, or AEPA, cooperative agreement.
The district will use lease-purchase financing to buy the copiers at a cost of up to $725,000 through financing with Commerce Bank. It's a savings of 7 percent from the current contract.
Copy Products, Inc., the local service provider, will provide maintenance and in exchange will charge the district a cost per copy.
David Pelletier, purchasing manager for the district, said AEPA negotiates pricing "so there's no need to spend additional time to go through a bidding process."
He said the district has typically leased new copiers every three years but by purchasing, might be able to extend the life for some equipment.
"In the past, we just didn't want to have to deal with getting rid of the equipment, which was a big hassle," he said. "But now with our online surplus site, we can do that fairly easily and there's additional revenue we can realize there."
Board member Andy Hosmer said a spreadsheet of other options Tigges handed out at the meeting suggested "a possibly significant savings."
He and others asked about the option of postponing any decision so additional legwork could be done. But one board member, Kris Callen, said she didn't like being handed information at the board table before staff could check it out.
Pelletier said postponing the agreement would have required him to negotiate an extension of the current contract and put delivery of new copiers too close to the school year.
He added that while he couldn't be "100 percent sure" the proposed agreement offered the best price, it was lower than many bids submitted in earlier cycles.
The board approved the agreement with a 5-2 vote. Denise Fredrick and Hosmer voted against it.
Pelletier said that it had been a busy year for purchasing "with our (state) audit and everything else going on."
"We got hit with a lot of bids here," he said, noting other contracts on the meeting agenda. "... Cooperative agreements allow you to spend your resources bidding other things."
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