News for the Statewide Procurement Community from the State Purchasing and Contracts Office
From the CPO
What a year 2022 has been! The State Purchasing and Contracts Office has achieved a lot over the past twelve months, and what better time than now to stop and appreciate the hard work of my incredible team. Our biggest undertaking was increasing the state's purchasing and commitment voucher thresholds. The process included stakeholding with the procurement community as well as rules hearings. A large review and update of all of our forms, the SPCO website, and training materials were then needed to capture the changes, especially the threshold increases. Other notable accomplishments include: Creating and publishing solicitation templates for Invitation for Bids, Invitations to Negotiate, and Requests for Proposals; updating procurement training courses in COPROU to make them more accessible; and the review of dozens of contract policies. We had a PAC Summit in the spring, and in place of the traditional PAC Summit this fall, we held a week-long Price Agreement event in addition to live contract trainings, and free LMS trainings from NASPO Procurement University and the SPCO COPROU learning management systems. Thank you, everyone, for all your hard work. None of this would be possible without my management team at the SPCO and our State Controller, Bob Jaros, the feedback of the Exec Procurement Advisory Council, and of course, the statewide procurement community. I know I ask a lot sometimes, but I appreciate you all and look forward to what we will achieve together in 2023!
Sincerely,
Sherri Maxwell, CPPB
Chief Procurement Officer
2022 Excellence in Procurement Award
The Excellence in Procurement Award is given out by the Chief Procurement Officer each fall, and recognizes outstanding achievement within the Colorado procurement community. Nominations are sought for procurement professionals who deserve special recognition, and are open to both state agencies and institutions of higher education.
This year we received eight nominations, each for a state procurement professional or team of procurement professionals who are doing outstanding work. The Executive Procurement Advisory Council (Exec PAC) is responsible for the very difficult task of choosing just one winner, and this year it is... Sarah Fischman from the Department of Education! As the Procurement Official for Education, Sarah has long been known for demonstrating and fostering excellence in procurement. Congratulations, Sarah!
 Please visit our Exec PAC webpage to view the "Award Ceremony" video and to read the full nominations.
We'd also like to recognize the other nominees, each of whom is truly making a difference with their work:
- Aaron Bushman, Department of Revenue
- Ion Cotsapas, Department of Natural Resources
- Barbara Musick, Department of Personnel & Administration
- John Sly, Department of Corrections
- Dana Stansbury, Department of Veteran & Military Affairs
- Scott Stephens, Governor’s Office of Information Technology
- Mike Whalen, Governor’s Office of Information Technology
Congratulations to Sarah and thank you to all of the nominees for everything you do for the State of Colorado!
RMGPA Winter Conference Recap
Did you attend the RMGPA Winter Conference in Colorado Springs earlier this month? The SPCO's own Sherri Maxwell and Thomas Wilson presented on Free Training with NASPO Procurement U, and State Price Agreement Updates. Sherri also presented on Increasing Procurement Thresholds. Thank you to everyone who took part!
CORE Governance Committee Update
For those who are not familiar, the Core Governance Committee (CGC) is made up of two procurement staff, two budget staff, two accounting staff, plus CORE/Office of State Controller leadership that meets monthly to discuss CORE issues and updates.
A spot opened up on the committee following the recent retirement of Holly Hammel from the Department of Corrections. We received many great nominations, and the newest member of the CGC is Elizabeth Wills from the Department of Education!
Thank you to all Procurement Officials who nominated themselves or their staff for this important role, and for voting on the winner. Welcome, Elizabeth!
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