Palm Beach Gardens official keeps it simple, in purchasing and poetry
By Tony Doris, The Palm Beach Post, Fla. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Since becoming purchasing director in
Km! Ra, 51, who previously worked in purchasing management for
Maintaining a level playing field for competitors is a crucial part of the job for purchasing directors. It requires making sure contract specifications are properly drawn and don't favor one bidder over another. In his view, when one vendor appears to be getting an undue share of the work, the problem usually isn't dishonesty. It's that staffers are just doing what they're used to doing. Working with department heads and other staffers and clarifying policies helps prevent problems, he said.
Putting contract details and policies online also eases the process for staffers and vendors, and helps avoid having multiple departments put out separate contracts for similar goods and services. On the city's website, http://www.pbgfl.com , Km! Ra's purchasing department section lists every contract, its dollar value and when it comes up for renewal.
Contracts that go through the city's purchasing department include everything from janitorial supplies (
City Manager
"He started this whole thing from nothing," Ferris said. "He wrote every policy, every procedure, he trained the staff, trained the trainers to train other staff. In the very beginning when the Inspector General was started, members of their staff came to him to ask about policies and procedures he was implementing here because they liked them so much. We don't know how we did without him."
Km! Ra said he reads and rereads contracts to get the details right and avoid disputes.
"One of the most important aspects of contracting is being meticulous," he said.
In his city hall office, there's not an item out of place on his desk, not a sheet of paper cluttering his black, metal inbox. He once bought a Miniature Toy Story car as a desk decoration, but his desk was so empty that someone took it because they thought it had been left behind at an unused workstation.
And yet, beneath all that order is an artist waiting to break free. He has published two books online: one, a novella he wrote when he was 14, called "Brutal Octopus"; the other, a book of poems and free verse, entitled "Inside My Head."
"If I wouldn't write a poem, I'd go mad," he said.
As for his name, it's Pronounced 'Koom Raw.' It's two words but one name, neither first nor last, which makes for confusion on his driver license and passport. He's Jamaican by birth and said he chose the name to evoke his West African roots. It means "a part of the sun."
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