Denton, Texas, with about 150,000 residents, is home to two universities. It’s a growing city, as it has sufficient land for development and is home to an active downtown square full of live music. It runs two water plants, a wastewater plant, an airport, a landfill, and its own electric utility.

With all that in place, efficient and effective procurement is key to Denton’s growth and success. The city brings about $500 million worth of purchases and contracts to the council each year and has a reputation for exemplary procurement practices. Following is a conversation with Sara Hensley, the just-retired city manager, and Lori Hewell, the city’s purchasing manager, to uncover the keys to its success.

Q: Do you have a centralized procurement operation?

Hewell: Yes, the larger procurements are centralized, but for any purchases under $100,000, a threshold established in state law, each department can quote and negotiate their own purchases. Purchasing then reviews the purchases and issues the purchase order. 

Q: Though Denton has a great reputation for procurement, you must run into challenges. Can you describe some that are of particular note?

Hewell: Supply chain issues are the biggest challenge. There are delays, sudden price increases, long lead times and supplier challenges.  These issues are further compounded for municipalities, with additional statutory and regulatory requirements that add complexity and lengthen the overall procurement process

Hensley: Denton operates a highly disciplined and transparent procurement program. Our evaluations are conducted independently by internal stakeholders, ensuring fairness, objectivity, and consistency. That said, when a project is substantial and must go through a competitive procurement process, it’s almost inevitable that some respondents will believe their proposal was stronger than the one selected. As a result, we are sometimes faced with protests or appeals that require us to revisit and revalidate our decisions and demonstrate the integrity of our process and sometimes repeat portions of the process.

Q: These aren’t unusual challenges for Denton, of course, but will you tell us how you’ve created a successful procurement system in spite of them?

Hewell: When I assumed leadership about eight years ago, there were no comprehensive  internal or external resources, or meaningful manuals for vendors to guide our processes.  Since then, we have developed a comprehensive procurement manual published on our website since 2020, that vendors can reference. It outlines our purchasing methods, requirements, and thresholds, protest process, and spans 65 pages, providing thorough guidance on nearly every aspect of our operation. 

We have also prioritized the development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all city departments, as well as detailed SOPs for internal procurement staff.  These improvements have significantly strengthened consistency, transparency, and operational efficiency across the organization.

Q: Making sure that everyone is working with the same information is critical of course, but what else has Denton done that’s unusual?

Hewell: We have made significant progress in streamlining our procurement processes, with the most impactful improvement being the transition to electronic bidding. By moving away from an email-based system, we have created a more transparent and accessible platform where vendors can easily locate all active solicitations. Vendors may also register within the system to receive notifications, ensuring they remain informed about opportunities relevant to them.

Once bids are submitted, our evaluations are conducted entirely within the electronic platform as well. This approach promotes fairness and consistency; every evaluator receives the same information, scores independently within the system, and documents their notes in a uniform manner.

Q: Any other insights into Denton’s approach?

Hewell: The other thing that I feel like our organization has done well, is our commitment to transparency. Vendors and other municipalities have full access to historical information, including solicitations, award decisions, evaluation results, and contract documents. 

Internally, we maintain the same level of transparency. We have annual meetings with every department and review upcoming contract expirations to determine the most appropriate procurement method. We outline when they need to get the solicitation to purchasing to ensure we have a contract in place before the current contract expires.

Once departments finalize the scope of work, we guide them through our Solicitation Review Committee, which is one of the City’s strongest operational assets. The committee consists of a representative from the City Attorney’s Office, Finance, Environmental Services, and Technology Services.  They all commit to meet weekly to review upcoming solicitations, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and compliance. It is a highly collaborative process that reflects the City’s commitment to thoroughness and accountability. 

Hensley: Through this system, the committee collaborates and identifies potential challenges early on, that ultimately make the overall process much more efficient.

Q: We understand that you help departments work together to benefit them all. Can you explain that?

Hewell: We want to be good stewards of city funds, and combining all of the departments’ purchases for a single item into one transaction gives us better buying power, which hopefully will in turn give us better pricing.

Q: Beyond the pricing, bringing departments together has other advantages, right?

Hensley: Yes. Historically, when a department identified a new technology, they were eager to implement, the focus was often on acquiring the product quickly.  

What was sometimes overlooked was how that system would integrate with the broader organizational infrastructure.  This is exactly why our current approach is so important. A single technology solution may have value for five different departments yet purchasing it in isolation prevents us from recognizing those shared opportunities. 

Instead of acquiring systems in a vacuum, we need to evaluate them holistically across the organization and ensure all relevant stakeholders are involved. That way, we can confirm the solution meets the collective needs of every department that may rely on it.

Q: Taking this idea one step further, we understand that you’re working with Civic Marketplace in order to combine your bids with those from other places. Will you expand on that?

Hewell: Civic Marketplace is a platform for multiple cities to use in procurement.  Other entities are able to take advantage of our contracted pricing, and we can take advantage of theirs. 

For broad categories such as office supplies, where there is a wide range of items, platforms like Civic Marketplace have already completed the solicitations, and have contracts already in place.  In many cases, we receive more favorable pricing than if we conduct the solicitation ourselves. 

For example, another city could utilize one of our contracts if the vendor agrees to extend the pricing. This increases visibility for the vendors and allows them to engage with cities without having to go through the solicitation process with every entity in Texas or nationwide. These cooperatives provide significant support to smaller cities by reducing administrative burdens and timelines.. 

This article was supported by and written in partnership with Civic Marketplace. For details about Denton’s supplier contracts across a broad range of public service categories, explore Civic Marketplace’s contract categories here.

#StateandLocalProcurement #StateandLocalPurchasing #StateandLocalContracting #CityPurchasingManagement #CityConractingManagement #CityPurchasingPerformance #CityContractingPerformance #CityOfDentonPurchasing #StateandLocalPromisingProcurementPractices #CityPromisingProcurementPractice #CityProcurementTransparency #CityProcurementConsistency #FormerDentonCityManagerSaraHensley #DentonCityPurchasingDirectorLoriHewell #CivicMarketplace #CityVendorOutreach #CityCooperativeContracting #StateandLocalContractEvaluation #CityContractEvaluation #StateandLocalSupplyChainIssues #CityProcurementManagement  #StateandLocalProcurementStatutoryAndRegulatoryRequirements #StateandLocalProcurementAppeals #CityProcurementAppeals #StateandLocalProcurementLeadership #CityProcurementLeadership #StateandLocalVendorCommunication #StateandLocalVendorOutreach #CityVendorCommunication #CityVendorOutreach #DentonElectronicBidding #DentonSolicitationReviewCommittee #DentonSupplierContracts #CivicMarketplaceAndDentonTX #BarrettandGreeneInc