STATE COMMITTEE OF VENDORS MINUTES

Altamonte Springs, FL: May 7-8, 2004

Mr. Sampadian called the meeting to order at 1:30 P.M. on Friday, May 7th.

Ms. Alger called the roll.

Ms. Alger announced that Paul Prescott is recovering from hip replacement surgery and is doing well.

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted without change by voice vote.

OLD BUSINESS

Mr. Rigney moved to combine VF 522, Dept. of Children & Families, with VF 267, a non-highway route, both in Tampa. Ms. Alger seconded the motion, which carried by voice vote.

Mr. Rose moved to combine VF 257, a State Regional Center, with VF 546 in West Palm Beach. Ms. Malmberg seconded the motion, which carried by voice vote.

MS. MURPHEY'S REPORT ON BEP OPERATIONS

Aramatic Food Services is currently managing three BEP facilities, the FDLE cafeteria in Tallahassee, the Fort Knox snack bar in Tallahassee, and the SWFWMD cafeteria in Brooksville. The Twin Towers facility in Tallahassee will become vacant as of May 20th and Aramatic has been notified that it will likely be needed to manage it on a temporary basis. The FDLE cafeteria will likely be placed on the July opportunities list. The Agency has secured a contract with SWFWMD for the vending machines and the manager will pay the host a 10% commission on machine sales.

Aramatic has indicated to Ms. Murphey that the company will most likely not bid on the machine contract in three Postal locations in Miami when it expires this December.

Aramatic may provide limited consultation services to our facilities when they have staff available.

Ms. Murphey then presented an update on budget operations, a copy of which is attached. Basically, we are on track with early projections, although unassigned machine income is down substantially. No increase in the set aside levy is needed, and it is possible that when VISINITY completes its task of locating all unassigned machines and revenues from that source increase, we may be able to reduce the levy.

The operations office is making progress in the area of tracking repair expenditures by facility. This should help identify locations in need of replacement equipment.

VSA/VISTAR PRESENTATION

Ms. Murphey introduced two sales/marketing representatives from VSA/VISTAR. The company would like to acquire more of our business and is seeking input from us on ways to achieve that goal. They admit that they have made some bad business decisions in the past, such as the 50 case minimum, but they believe they are making progress in correcting internal problems. Mr. Sampadian requested that they work with the Power Purchasing Workgroup to develop ideas and bring a proposal to the Committee.

GRIEVANCE BOARD AND SELECTION PROCESS UPDATE

Mr. Sampadian informed the Committee that Mr. Thompson had tendered his resignation from the Board and that said resignation was rejected. Mr. Thompson stated that the Board works diligently to find an equitable resolution to all grievances but that the Agency's responses make our work useless. **Secretarial note*** Mr. Thompson's resignation and the discussion that followed resulted from the Agency's rejection of the Grievance Board's findings and recommendations for resolution of three grievances arising from the Agency's appointment to VF476 following the last convening of the Selection Panel.

Mr. Newcomb stated that two of these were now in litigation and that he thought it would be inappropriate to discuss them. Mr. Sampadian replied that although the Agency staff might not be able to discuss these grievances, the Committee could do so.

Mr. Pierce expressed indignation that the Agency can ignore both the Selection Panel's recommendations and those of the Grievance board. Mr. Sampadian explained that these two entities make recommendations to the Agency, but the Director makes the final decision.

Mr. Newcomb stated that his belief is that the Grievance Board's role is to determine if the Agency followed applicable rule, policy and practice. Several members of the Committee and the Board voiced disagreement with this belief.

Mr. Sampadian stated that the Committee should work toward solving problems in the transfer and promotion process and that when it becomes more open and all vendors can see that they are treated with equal consideration the number of grievances will decline. Toward that end the following motion was offered by Mr. Bluschke, Chairperson of the Transfer and Promotion workgroup and seconded by Ms. Alger:

The following procedure will be used to revise the transfer and promotion selection process.

  1. Any vendor, DBS personnel, or other concerned person will be permitted to suggest revisions to the selection process.
  2. Proposed revisions to the selection process shall be submitted in writing to the chairperson of the Transfer and Promotion Workgroup.
  3. The chairperson of the Transfer and Promotion Workgroup shall send the proposed revision to the Committee Chairperson. The Committee Chairperson shall place the proposed revision on the next Committee agenda. The entire text of the revision shall be placed in the agenda.
  4. The Transfer and Promotion Chairperson with a proper second shall introduce the revision as a motion for discussion.
  5. After reasonable discussion and input from other concerned persons the Committee chairperson shall call the question. To be adopted the motion will require an affirmative vote of 51% of the Committee representatives at the Committee meeting.
  6. In the event it is necessary to consider revisions where the time frame is critical and cannot wait to be placed on the Committee agenda the revision shall be considered as an emergency.

The parliamentary procedure to move an item as an emergency is as follows:

1. The issues of the emergency must be considered first. The emergency with a proper second is introduced for discussion.

2. After discussing the reason for the emergency the Committee chairperson shall call the question. The emergency must be adopted by 2/3 (two thirds) of the Committee representatives at the Committee meeting.

3. If the emergency is moved the revision process will be as in paragraphs 4 and 5.

Changes to the selection process will be implemented on the first day of the calendar year quarter after acceptance by dbs.

The selection process will be governed by the policies in place at the time job opportunities are placed on the job opportunity list.

After lengthy discussion the question was called. The motion carried unanimously by roll call vote.

Mr. Elliott was asked for the agency's response to this motion and he stated he would approve the action if no compliance issues arise.

Ms. Alger then offered the following motion, seconded by mr. Weitzel:

The selection panel will hold a conference after each selection round to identify any problem areas and to evaluate any changes that have been implemented. The panel will send its findings in writing to the chairperson of the transfer and promotion workgroup. The report will be presented at the next meeting of the committee.

After discussion the motion carried unanimously.

An announcement was made that vf489 has been removed from the current opportunity list because inaccurate information was provided in the advertisement.

Mr. Sampadian adjourned the meeting at approximately 5:30 p.m.

Mr. Sampadian reconvened the meeting at 9:20 a.m. On saturday, may 8th.

Ms. Alger called the roll.

Mr. Sampadian opened the meeting with a statement that the florida bep enjoys an unusually open and co-operative between the sla and the vendors. He thanked mr. Elliott and his staff for their hard work and expressed confidence that the good relationship we have with them will continue as we work together for the improvement of the program.

Mr. Bluschke made the following motion read by ms. Alger and seconded by mr. Anderson:

The transfer and promotion workgroup moves to consider on an emergency basis the elimination from selection methodology of bonus points awarded to members of the state committee of vendors, the selection panel and the grievance board. The reason for considering this proposal as an emergency is to ensure that, if passed, it will be implemented when the selection panel convenes for the july 2004 selections.

Mr. Newcomb explained that under current selection procedures, applicants from the above named groups receive < point for each quarter year of service within the last three years with a maximum of three points. Applicants holding secondary limited lofa's also receive bonus points using the same formula.

After discussion the motion passed unanimously by roll call vote, satisfying the 2/3-majority requirement.

The motion was then discussed. Some felt that the secondary lofa points should also be deleted but no amendment to the motion was offered.

The motion passed unanimously by roll call vote.

Further discussion of the bonus points for secondary lofa's ensued and the consensus of the committee was that these points are appropriate but should be given a different name. Mr. Newcomb said he would convey that to the selection panel.

Mr. Sampadian requested a written description of the criteria definitions and the scoring point scale from the selection panel. Mr. Newcomb said he would see to this.

Ms. Murphey was asked to provide a copy of the coke contract to all committee members and she agreed to expedite this action.

Ms. Alger requested that the committee approve two additional alternates to the grievance board. Three nominations were made as follows:

Jim gaudette nominated by mr. Harper and seconded by ms. Alger

Phil bluschke nominated by mr. Rigney and seconded by mr. Fickett

Jim anderson nominated by ms. Alger and seconded by mr. Harper.

Motion was made and passed by voice vote to close nominations.

Mr. Anderson withdrew his name from consideration.

Mr. Gaudette and mr. Bluschke were confirmed by roll call vote with district 13 casting a dissenting vote.

Mr. Weitzel gave an update on plans for the 2005 seminar. The place is the rosen plaza in orlando and the dates are august 19 - 21. He plans to bring back the awards banquet.

Mr. Pierce stated that he does not favor this location, citing accessibility issues. Mr. Elliott responded that he would bring these to the state building commission, of which he is a member.

Mr. Kalivoda gave a highly positive report on the recent blast conference and encouraged all to attend the event next year, when it will take place in denver. Mr. Elliott said the agency would again pay the registration fee for florida vendors.

Mr. Bluschke offered a proposal to arrange a focus group meeting of the selection panel and the transfer & promotion workgroup. Mr. Newcomb would also be asked to attend. The proposal was met with general enthusiasm. Mr. Thompson suggested the grievance board should be included. Mr. Newcomb opined that it might not be appropriate. Members of the board disagreed.

Mr. Elliott agreed to the proposal and will work out details of time and place.

Mr. Thompson brought up the issue of the agency's decision to hire a marketing consultant to revamp a facility in Tallahassee. Mr. Elliott informed the committee that this initiative was taken by the director, who is mindful of the political factors involved with our operations in the capitol.

Although neither the committee nor the bureau chief was consulted, the facility manager was part of the discussions and was not forced into any action.

Mr. Sampadian explained that political concerns are always in play in Tallahassee and that Mr. Kiser, not being a food service person, naturally hired a consultant when he believed there were problems in the facility.

Mr. Thompson believes that if new product and marketing concepts are to be introduced as part of the BEP the committee must be a participant in those developments. He requested that the workgroups become more active in policy development.

The Tallahassee FCI laundry service will probably be open by the end of June. A manager has been appointed and the equipment has been purchased.

Mr. Sampadian adjourned the meeting at 11:32 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Gyorke Alger, committee secretary

Gene Newcomb, compliance officer

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