The Seabrook Board of Selectmen have created centralized purchasing by policy, which has led to savings in procurement across the enterprise. As part of this major reform the Board abolished the position of Projects Clerk, and created the position of Procurement Manager. Since that time Procurement Manager Shaylia Marquis has brought the process of requesting public property surplus back to where it needs to be, with all requests for disposition of public property submitted to the Board of Selectmen in public session for discussion and decision by the governing body. As part of this effort Ms. Marquis initiated a process to dispose of taxpayer property through the use of “public auctions,” with utilization of a national on line company Public Surplus. That company does not charge the Town for use of the system, with all costs borne by the buyer. This initiative has brought the taxpayers of Seabrook over $70,000 for the surplus of public items, including $40,000 for the disposition of a Town boat. Ms. Marquis has initiated a process where Town police cruisers coming off line are disposed off through this process. We have just sold our third cruiser through this process, and those proceeds have far exceeded the value taxpayers would have received from simply trading the cruisers in against the value of new cruisers. There has been much more to centralized procurement than this item, but it is a significant success. Congratulations to Procurement Manager Marquis for all of her hard work in bringing this success to the taxpayers of Seabrook.
