May 12, 2016

As CSAC President, Supervisor Richard Forster likes to say, we are “one family, 58 strong.” and one of the ways that works is through our pooled purchasing program that can significantly reduce costs for counties. The U.S. Communities purchasing program has more than 35 contracts available, but on average, California counties only use two per county. Counties can save more by utilizing more of the supplier contracts. This no-cost program is available to all counties, cities, special districts, and non-profits and offers the lowest local government pricing on all contract items.

Since the offerings on U.S. Communities are constantly evolving, the CSAC Finance Corporation, CSAC, and the League of California Cities are co-sponsoring a series of free U.S. Communities briefings throughout California this year. The purpose of these briefings, known as the U.S. Communities Suppliers Summits, is to help inform local government staff how to take advantage of the many (including some new) procurement options in the U.S. Communities purchasing program. Please urge your administrative staff responsible for facilities, IT, fleet, parks & recreation, public safety, public works and HR activities to attend a Summit in your area. The following Summits are currently scheduled:

San Bernardino County
May 24, 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Victoria Gardens Cultural Center in Rancho Cucamonga
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
 

Alameda County
June 8, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Shannon Community Center in Dublin
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER 

Additional Summits will be scheduled later this year in Kern County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, and Sonoma County.

In addition to the Summits, we are excited to announce the launch of the new U.S. Communities contract for Technology Products, Services, Solutions and Related Products and Services with the following supplier partners:

• Carahsoft awarded for Google for Work products, services and solutions
• DLT Solutions awarded for Amazon Web Services products, services and solutions
• Insight Public Sector awarded for technology products, services and solutions along with the following named partners: Cisco; HP Inc.; Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Dell; Panasonic; EMC; Commvault; Symantec; Veritas; VMware; Apple; Microsoft; Citrix; and NetApp
• UNICOM Government awarded for technology services and solutions and related products

To learn more about this new contract, U.S. Communities will be holding complimentary webinars:

May 17, 8:00 a.m.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
 

May 19, 10:00 a.m.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

The U.S. Communities technology contract was awarded after the lead public agency, Fairfax County, Virginia, completed a competitive solicitation and thorough evaluation process. This contract runs May 1, 2016, through April 30, 2019, with four one-year renewal options or any combination of time equally not more than four years.

U.S. Communities was founded by the CSAC Finance Corporation, CSAC, and the League of California Cities and is the leading national cooperative purchasing program that leverages the buying power of over 90,000 public agencies. Please visit www.uscommunities.org for more information or contact Laura Labanieh at (916) 650-8186 or llabanieh@csacfinancecorp.org.