Palm Beach Gardens official keeps it simple, in purchasing and poetry

June 22--PALM BEACH GARDENS -- A guy you probably never heard of, whose name you probably can't pronounce and who wrote a book about a man-eating octopus, serves as the city's gatekeeper for $40 million in annual spending.

Since becoming purchasing director in March 2012, Km! Ra has reworked procedures to make it easier for vendors to vie for contracts and to give the city a better shot at good prices and quality service for everything from paving to health insurance.

Km! Ra, 51, who previously worked in purchasing management for Miami-Dade County, said Palm Beach Gardens was small and manageable enough that its procedures could be simplified to encourage competition. For a vendor to register to compete, for example, used to be an arduous process but now requires only a short form, he said. "Registering takes 10 seconds."

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 ($140,000) to pool chemicals and supplies ($170,000), tires and related services ($200,000), and even leases ($269,000 over four years) for 84 golf carts for the city's municipal course. Some items go out to bid, others are bought under state contracts, or by piggybacking on other municipalities' contracts.

City Manager Ron Ferris estimated that Km! Ra has saved the city $1.3 million to date, through negotiations, cost-avoidance and terminating contracts.

"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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