The City of Portland has launched an ambitious project to strengthen accountability, trim costs and boost local businesses by reforming the procurement data systems that administers a billion dollars’ worth of contracts every year.
Led by data analyst Gennie Nguyen, the Portland Lift project is designed to make the City’s contract system more transparent by adopting an international benchmark known as the Open Contracting Data Standard. The project will make the system more accessible, which in turn should lower costs, improve forecasting, and help local businesses—particularly minority and women-owned businesses.
“About 1 out of 3 dollars spent in government is spent through contracts,” Nguyen says. “The role that contracts play is huge. Procurement reform is more than just delivering services. This is a way to center equity, boost efficiency, and lift our economy.”
A patchwork system
Concrete for highway construction. Diesel for bulldozers. Grit for icy streets. Water pipes, cable, data servers. Trucks and trailers, walkie-talkies, construction equipment. Every year, the City buys thousands of goods and services through Procurement Services.
Procurement is a complex process with many steps, from determining need to soliciting bids to negotiating terms, and is subject to a thick stack of regulations. Ironically, the City has taken a duct-tape and binder-twine approach to updating its procurement procedures over the years. As a result, the process relies on a patchwork of computer systems shared among several offices and bureaus, with different standards and definitions.
This disconnected approach frustrated local business owners because the City requires them to register in at least four different systems to win a contract.
“If we don't have a standard system, it gets confusing for vendors, especially small business owners,” Nguyen says. “Many vendors just won't work with us because it’s so confusing.”
Bidding is supposed to be competitive; when several vendors all vie for the same contract, the City gets a better deal. But the process can be slow and complicated, so many vendors get discouraged. In the last seven years, the City has solicited about 884 competitive bids, but 30 percent of those requests only attracted one vendor, undercutting the benefits of competition. (See the City Operation Service Area’s Competition for Contracts dashboard for more information.)
The problem becomes even more acute when you step back and look at government contracts for the whole region. The City of Portland, Multnomah County, Metro, the state of Oregon – these entities might all need a particular item, such as concrete, for their projects. But without a uniform data standard, it’s difficult for local businesses to know what the demand will be in the future. If they can’t plan, they won’t bid, and the City may have to turn to out-of-state suppliers.
“For example, if a large construction project ties up most of the construction businesses for the next 10 years, where will the City get bids for other important work that Portlanders depend on like fixing roads, managing urban forests, or producing clean drinking water?” Nguyen asks. “Better data would help local vendors forecast demand and get ready to meet it.”
Another challenge has to do with staffing. Since 2017, the City’s contract volume has doubled, ballooning from $468 million to $985 million. But the number of staff members in Procurement Services in the same period has inched up slowly, rising from 40 to 46 staff members. Procurement Services struggles with having enough staff to meet the demand. Better data could help City leaders understand the impacts of budget decisions.
Taming the beast
Nguyen's work got a big boost in 2023, when Portland won an award from the Open Contracting Partnership, an international nonprofit dedicated to using open data to make government more inclusive and transparent. Nguyen and her team leveraged technical support from the nonprofit to launch the Portland Lift project. They brought together experts. They asked vendors about their frustrations. They talked with the City's procurement teams that focus on design, personal services and goods and services.
One insight revolved around the City’s requests for proposals, or RFPs. These RFPs are key documents that spell out requirements to compete for contracts. Portland’s RFPs were extremely complex, in part because each document included lengthy notes intended for different audiences: some notes for vendors, some notes for bureau managers, some notes for procurement specialists, and so on.
The team decided to combine the dozen RFP templates into a much simpler document, with a short summary on the first page. They also produced a guide for vendors and a guide for bureaus. (Check out the City's BuySpeed vendor portal for examples.) The City issued its first RFP using the new template last month. (It asked for bids for a transportation study.)
“This is so much easier for vendors to figure out,” Nguyen says. “And it cuts down the time to create the RFP, evaluate the proposals, and award the contract.” (Want to know more? City employees can access the redesigned RFP templates, guides, and resources.)
More accessible data will be particularly help for smaller local businesses, which are more likely to be owned by women or minorities, Nguyen says. These businesses face significant hurdles to doing business with the City.
Later this month, the City will launch Portland’s open contracting data standard publication. This portal will draw on data from several systems that were until now separate, making megabytes of contracting information more accessible to the public and to local businesses.
“The more vendors, the lower the prices, the better the quality, and the better for taxpayers,” Nguyen says.
The Portland Lift team is holding a celebration on April 29.
Read more about Nguyen at Taming a billion-dollar beast.