The $1.8 million office supply diet

Somewhere out there in the vast universe of Los Angeles County office supplies, a Mini-Jeweleria brown resin fountain pen ($40.50) is feeling the heat right about now.

So is the Victor 12-Digit Heavy-Duty Two-Color Printing Calculator ($202.46), the Deflect-O® Execumat Heavy-Duty Vinyl Chairmat For High-Pile Carpets ($131.54) and a certain aluminum beveled edge ruler ($4.75). All have been purchased by various departments in favor of far cheaper versions of similar products available through the county’s massive office supplies contract.

No more. As county belt-tightening shifts into high gear—and nearly a year after departments were originally asked to switch to cheaper office supply alternatives—the Chief Executive Office is getting ready to draw a line in the supply closet. And not with some expensive gel ink rollerball pen, either.

Led by Joe Sandoval, the county’s general manager of Purchasing and Contract Services, a team of Internal Services Department employees has been going line-by-line through 18,000 items currently offered as purchase options under the county’s Office Depot contract. The goal is to establish a narrower range of reasonably-priced items in a “formulary” that employees will be required to use when ordering supplies. (See graphic below).

Sandoval says he is not fixated on price as the only consideration. “A 12-cent pen is better than a 5-cent pen,” he acknowledges. But he says that having too many choices of writing implements can lead to some bad decisions.

As for who’s buying $18.63 scissors when there are $1.37 scissors to be had, Sandoval prefers not to name any supply scofflaws. “I don’t want to hang any departments out,” he says.

The interest in reining in the county’s $6 million-a-year office supply habit comes against a backdrop of a countywide push for greater efficiency in a tough economy. A pilot program was launched last year, for example, to use remanufactured toner cartridges, saving $23,847 and prompting a countywide switch to such cartridges for black and white desktop printers and copiers.

There’s also an insider’s website tracking efforts to save money and streamline operations across a wide range of departments. The site features an employee suggestion box, which has attracted 238 entries since October.

As for office supplies, the buy-cheaper memo from county CEO William T. Fujioka last March made the case that simply purchasing less expensive pens could yield a savings of $162,000 a year. A purchasing bulletin issued shortly after provided guidance on the right price point on dozens of items—from butterfly clamps and erasers to rubber bands and steno pads.

But a Jan. 25, 2010, memo from Fujioka announcing the formulary plan pointedly noted the “need for greater departmental attention to purchasing low cost office products.”

Sandoval estimates that the county has saved about $500,000 on supplies in the past 12 months. But he thinks it can do so much better.

“We’re looking at a 30% savings when we complete the 18,000 line items,” he says. “That’s a significant savings.” (A cool $1.8 million a year, in case you don’t have your county-approved calculator handy.)

“It’s the best bang for the taxpayer’s buck—that’s the philosophy,” says Sandoval, 52, a 19-year ISD employee and former member of the Air Force’s security police. “That’s what I’m here for.”

He will allow that out there in “Departmentland,” people can be so focused on their “core businesses” that adopting thrifty purchasing habits is not necessarily their highest priority.

And that’s where the new online formulary comes in.

The work on the project—by a team including Gerry Plummer, division manager of purchasing, and Ted Lo, purchasing and contract analyst—should be finished within the next month or so.

When the 9,000 or fewer approved supplies are listed, catalog-style, in the county’s “procurement module,” anyone who goes in to order will see a pull-down menu of just the right choices—not the extravagant ones.

“They won’t be able to see that $32 pen,” Sandoval says.