| As the nation's largest county government faces a budget shortfall of several hundred million dollars next fiscal year, Fujioka has instructed the county's 37 departments to buy cheaper office supplies.
The effort is one of several Fujioka estimates will save taxpayers nearly $100 million a year. This includes savings of $3 million by eliminating unused phone lines, $6.4 million by reducing contract costs and $50 million by creating a more efficient pharmaceutical purchasing system.
They hope to cut the county's annual pen bill to just $33,000 from a current $195,000 by, among other things, banning the purchase of Mini-Jeweleria brown resin fountain pens, which cost $40.50 each.
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said a purchasing system that allows employees to buy exorbitantly priced office supplies didn't "happen overnight."
"It's part of a culture that has grown up over the years and probably over the decades," Yaroslavsky said. "When you add up all the excessive purchases and subtract from the less expensive ones you can save millions of dollars."
Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said every government agency in the state should take similar steps to save money.
"There are people in the community living in cardboard boxes and we have people working for the county ordering $40 pens," Vosburgh said.
"People are highly suspicious and very cynical about all levels of government, and if our elected leaders want to restore confidence these kinds of actions - the careful auditing of every aspect of spending - needs to take place."
Joe Sandoval, general manager of Purchasing and Contract Services in the Internal Services Department, recently went line-by-line through the 18,000-item office supply catalog and trimmed it in half.
"What we have done is, where there are like items with different prices, we are going with the cheaper brands to save money," Sandoval said.
For example, the old catalog included the Deflect-O Execumat Heavy-Duty Vinyl Chairmat for High-Pile Carpets for $131.54. Now employees must buy an "econo" mat for $13.59.
Also, the county used to offer employees an aluminum beveled edge ruler for $4.75. Now, they have to use a wood beveled ruler that costs 44 cents.
The county spends $6 million a year on office supplies and Sandoval estimates purchasing lower-cost products will trim 25-30 percent off the bill. The county spends another $4.5 million on paper, an expense departments are trying to reduce by printing double-sided documents, sending more e-mails and reviewing documents on their computers rather than printing them out.
In a memo to department heads last March, Fujioka wrote the county spends $195,000 a year buying pens - an expense that could be cut by $162,000 by buying cheaper pens.
"These range from basic stick ballpoint pens at 5 cents each, to more expensive gel and grip pens that can cost many times that amount," Fujioka wrote.
On Jan. 25, Fujioka sent another memo to department heads saying a review of more recent office supply purchases indicated the "need for greater departmental attention to purchasing low-cost office products."
He also noticed employees could buy a Victor 12-Digit Heavy-Duty Two-Color Printing Calculator for $202.46. The new alternative, printing calculator costs $27.47. Sandoval also found employees were purchasing "soft touch" scissors for $18.63. The new "good quality" scissors cost $1.37.
"It just boggles the mind that anyone would consider a $40 pen a wise use of taxpayers' money," said David Kline, spokesman for the California Taxpayers' Association. "It's sad that it took a major recession for them to even scrutinize this list and eliminate the wasteful spending." |
