PLACER COUNTY CALIF : OEM’s ARE OUT
& GENERICS ARE IN !
3M out,
generics in, as Placer County shaves costs
ROSEVILLE CALIFORNIA
Higher-priced brand-name office supplies like 3M Post-It Notes are out
as Placer County moves ahead with a more frugal spending paradigm forced
by dropping revenues.Instead, county departments are being asked to
follow a new policy of buying cheaper house-brand or generic-brand
paper, post-its, paperclips and other supplies.Supervisors heard Tuesday
from members of a cost-saving task force organized earlier this year to
consider more than 200 ideas suggested by county employees to save
money.Jim Boggan, a member of the purchasing subcommittee, said an
in-house study indicated $76,000 in annual savings could be generated by
going generic.Supervisors also accepted a recommendation by the
committee to require employees to buy recycled ink-jet and laser-jet
cartridges instead of new ones. The shift could mean savings of $60,000 a
year.Boggan said ink cartridges were tested and there was no
discernible difference between recycled cartridges purchased from
Staples and brand-new ones.
Limiting staff travel by tapping into
new advances in Web conferencing will also be utilized by the county in
the future, Brian Jagger, an automation subcommittee member, reported
that an estimated $67,000 in travel and meeting costs could be avoided
by teleconferencing and Web meetings.Jagger said printing costs could
also be held down by using electronic or scanned copies.“The easiest way
(to cut printing costs) is to not do it as much,” he said.With printing
controls in place, the county could save another $80,000 during the
first year, Jagger said.Tom Miller, County CEO, said supervisors should
expect more ideas to save money coming forward every couple of months.
The
round of cost shavings drew lukewarm praise from Auburn’s Dan Sokol,
vice president of the League of Placer County Taxpayers.“In the main,
they’re to be applauded,” Sokol said. “There are two edges though. One
is to say ‘Go for it.’ The other is ‘Why did it take you so long.”Sokol
added that reducing the paper flow may save money but could be a problem
in retaining transparency in government if everything is copied
electronically