The City has operated with two purchasing card programs simultaneously for a period of several years. Neither of the two existing purchasing card programs offer robust functionality to provide tools to manage purchases made with the cards that allow additional audit controls to be put in place. The City has had difficulty with after hour customer service which has made emergency situations with use of the card harder to manage. Additionally, neither program provides a cash rebate to the City, a standard feature in municipal purchasing card programs. In fact, the City has also been paying a yearly fee for the use of one the two programs currently being used.
The use of the City's Purchasing Card Program was also an issue with the Office of Inspector General when the agency conducted a review of our two existing programs.
A previous solicitation was issued for Banking Services which incorporated Purchasing Cards as one of the three disciplines related to Banking. A recommendation was made to award to another vendor that did not participate in this solicitation. No action was taken by the Council in September 2015 for an award to any vendor.
In December 2015, a presentation was made to Council to separate the Banking RFP into individual solicitations with Purchasing Card as its own solicitation. The RFP for Purchasing Card was issued on December 20, 2015.
There were three firms that bid for this RFP and the Selection Committee made a recommendation to award to PFM Financial Services, LLC in partnership with Harris Bank and the Bank of Montreal.
The City for the first time will receive a rebate for purchases made with the card after the designated spend of $50,000.