RMGPA Friends,
I wanted to say goodbye to a great bunch of friends and a great organization. Friday I am retiring from Littleton Public Schools after 14 years here, 26 years in public purchasing and 32 years total working in the public sector. This year is also 40 years since I took my first job at a Burger Chef restaurant in Cincinnati.
I would like to reminisce a little about the “good old days” and some of the great people I have worked for and with.
During the early 70’s I worked at various car dealers and auto parts stores in Cincinnati. I moved to Colorado in March 1977 to chase a dream of 4-wheeling in the mountains every chance I could get.
During the late 70’s I took my first job in the public sector (City and County of Denver) and my first exposure to public purchasing. I worked for the Police Fleet and I couldn’t purchase anything out of the city limits. I had to get creative and have local vendors purchase and re-invoice me if I needed a part that was only available in Golden. I got to meet a lot of the police officers and got to talk to some of the ones who received new Lincolns from Elvis Presley. Some of the guys that worked there were not always kind to the newbie. I remember being told to go out in the parking lot to remove a roll-up window handle from a Chevy Nova. Nobody bothered to tell me that a tear gas canister had gone off inside the car! Thought I was going to die!! Another time I was driving a bunch of co-workers back from dropping off police cars downtown. We were in an unmarked police car and as I went to get out of the car, the old electro-mechanical siren started wailing. I didn’t know how to make it stop. People in office buildings were staring out the windows at the loud siren. The guys with me were rolling around on the ground laughing. Finally someone told me to take my foot off the button. It was under the floor mat and I had no idea I was pressing on it!
In 1980 I took a job at Jefferson County Government working at their Evergreen Road and Bridge Shop. I would order parts, drive to Shaffer’s Crossing to deliver parts and then drive to Denver to pick up parts, deliver more parts to Golden, go back to Evergreen and then do it all over again the next day.
I also got married in 1980 to my wonderful wife, Marilyn. I will never forget going into the Evergreen shop shortly before the wedding to find a real (bowling) ball and chain on my desk!
In 1981 I was transferred to Golden. My parts running days were over, but I still ordered and received parts for all of the fleet. There was a buyer named Ricky Smith who didn’t seem real happy that fleet was placing more purchase orders than the purchasing department. In 1983 I was transferred to Purchasing. We worked on the second floor of an old bank building. Our records were kept in the tunnel to the old drive-up lanes. Lanny Loveday worked there along with Ricky Smith. One day a buyer named Candi left the office and never returned. She had been buying all the office furniture for the new jail. A new buyer joined the staff. Her name was Fran Mueller.
In 1986 we moved our office to 19th Street in Golden. I could not work the day we moved because my wife was in the hospital having twin girls. When I made it back to work, they had an office for me that had a furnace hanging from the ceiling. It was fine in the summer but a little noisy when you were on the phone in the winter. Ricky left and Fran became the director. Pete Toth joined the staff and worked for me. (Do you remember the bottled water bid Pete?) Also Marcia Sieben came over from Fleet. Marcia and I heard about a meeting that was taking place at the School of Mines and got permission from Fran to attend. It was RMGPA. I remember meeting Bruce Hartzmith, Jennie Ready and others at that meeting. I also learned about a group called MAPO. A few months later I remember Pete and I wanted to go to Loveland for a RMGPA conference and Fran turned us down. It was too far to go!! Eventually Pete, Marcia and I convinced Fran these were worthwhile meetings and we were able to join. During the early 90’s the county was busy building the Taj Mahal. Pete and I signed the beam in the dome before it was hoisted up. I remember being part of the JCPC co-op that was formed with Jeffco, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Lakewood (Ed Conner), Jeffco Schools (Mike Mitchell) and Broomfield. This is when the (MAPO) fuel RFP originated. We did an RFP for just the Jeffco entities and before you knew it, most entities along the front range were using it.
Around 1994 I went to an RMGPA meeting in Avon and signed up to help with the 1995 NIGP convention in Denver. I remember working with Joe Pucci and others. Bruce and I were stationed at the brand new DIA to welcome arriving NIGP members. I had never been there before and it took me forty minutes to find my car when I left. I didn’t realize there was parking on both sides of the airport! Also in 1994 I achieved CPPB Certification along with the Ft. Collins class of ‘94. John Stevens, Marcia Sieben,
John Binkley, Lanny Loveday and a bunch of others made it thanks to Jim O’Neal and his great classes. Boy did it rain the night before and Marcia and I could not get rooms in Ft. Collins. We had to stay in Longmont!!
In 1996 I left Jeffco and took the Purchasing and Warehouse Supervisor position at Littleton Public Schools. I found out right away what a different animal school districts were from county government. LPS has been good to me and I have worked with some great folks in Purchasing, Finance and education and a few I may want to forget. J
One of the best things I remember from the late 90’s was going to the RMGPA convention in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I met Sharon Williams at DIA while we were waiting for the plane and she became my traveling buddy. The trip did not start out well. When I got to my hotel in Halifax, I found out I had someone else’s wardrobe bag. The bag looked just like mine, but was full of dresses. I called Sharon at her hotel and found it belonged to a lady from Adams County who was also surprised to open her bag and find a men’s suit. We got that fixed and the next morning I met Sharon and others and toured the Atlantic Maritime museum and saw deck chairs from the Titanic. We did a lot of other fun things on that trip including spending the day in a cab with a cab driver who did not speak English very well, but loved Halifax and showed us every point of interest in the city. Peggy’s Cove and the cemetery where the Titanic victims were buried were the most interesting. Sharon, Vicki Bauer, Fran and I took a whale watching boat ride on the Haligonian II that I would rather forget. I remember the name of the boat because I spent most of that trip hanging over the rail throwing up. It was not one of my better moments. I also remember a boat ride with Fran, John Stevens, Mary Kirschmer, Marcia and others that was more successful for me and got us across the harbor. I remember great restaurants, a great ghost tour, the lobster fest at a pier, and listening to Sons of Maxwell perform. I bought some CD’s that night and have followed them ever since. Dave Carroll is now known worldwide because of his run-in with United Airlines and his “United Breaks Guitars” video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
Yes, I actually did attend almost every session that was available in Halifax, but I was exhausted and remember Mary poking me on the plane ride home to wake me up.
The next year I was lucky enough to go to the convention in Baltimore. The night I got there I remember the ballgame and picnic at Camden Yards. I walked back to the hotel after the game with Sharon and Katherine Rowe. I didn’t realize that downtown Baltimore at night was not the safest place to be. Katherine and I got lost going back to the hotel. We finally found our way, but not before walking the entire downtown area. The next day Katherine and I, along with a bus full of NIGP delegates, took a three-hour plus bus ride to Atlantic City. We walked the boardwalk and the beach. I remember getting chased from the Trump Plaza beach because we were sitting on chairs we had not rented. I don’t think we got back to Baltimore until 1:00 a.m.
The next day I started hearing stories about the downtown area not being safe. We started walking in groups to the convention center. One evening something woke me up about 3:00 a.m. at the Omni hotel where I was staying. I looked out the window and hundreds of people were out walking around. Then I saw the police show up and saw a body was lying on the sidewalk across the street from my window. I realized it was a gunshot that woke me up. I watched them take pictures and load him in an ambulance. He was not moving and there was no urgency with anyone getting him out of there, so I assumed the worst. The next day at the convention center I asked if others had heard about what happened. No one had. I thought I was nuts. Then finally later that day at the hotel I found someone else who knew about the shooting. I never walked alone the rest of the week. While in Baltimore I wanted to go to Ft. McHenry. I had been there with my parents in 1963. Sharon Williams, my travel buddy, was willing to go even though she had been there the day before.
I did attend several RMGPA conferences during the next few years in Colorado Springs, Estes Park, Loveland, Ft. Collins, Castle Rock and Grand Junction. These were always fun and educational except when my room had bed bugs in Estes Park!
My last NIGP Conference was in 2007 in Hartford. Mike Thomas and I took the red eye out of DIA and got to Hartford around 6:00 a.m. Our hotel rooms would not be ready until 2:00 p.m., so we really had a fun day trying to keep awake. I finally got a room around noon (sometimes those hotel reward cards do actually work). I know I slept the rest of that day. John, Pete, Katherine, Jim and Sharon were all in Hartford along with Diane Wilson from Durango and Ed Bonnette from Ft. Collins along with many others. Sharon, myself, and several others went to the Mark Twain house and got to stand in the rain waiting for a really slow bus. The conference, the food and RMGPA friends were great, but I do think they rolled up the streets around 6:00 p.m. there. I remember a nice dinner one night with Linda Trimble and Ed. The outdoor lobster fest was great also.
I will never forget these great times and great RMGPA friends. It was always such a great comfort to pick up the phone or get e-mail from RMGPA members to find answers to tough issues and share ideas.
In 2010 I worry about the profession, the budget cuts, the economy and what is happening to your workloads. If my entity is any indication, the tens of millions of dollars in budget cuts are taking quite a toll. I never imagined I would end my career as a budget cut. The folks that are left have workloads and responsibilities that I can’t imagine. The politics in government, which I always felt should stay out of the Purchasing/Procurement areas, seems to be more prevalent then ever. Attending RMGPA conferences, CEPC meetings and NIGP events seems not to be a high priority (to some) when staff is being cut, work days furloughed, and folks are having a hard time just getting the daily work done.
You are truly a great group of individuals, and I hope the economy and budget cuts are kinder to you than they have been to me.
I will be doing some part-time work for LPS March through June. I want to do some traveling this year, work on some “honey do” projects and may do some additional part- time work down the road, if I get bored.
A very special thank you to Dayle Redman and Carla Bryant who have worked with me the last 14 years. You could not ask for better co-workers and they are the glue that keeps this place together!
Keep up all your good work and continue to support CEPC, MAPO, RMGPA and NIGP as time allows. Don’t let the work stress get to you and when you need an answer to a problem, call a fellow RMGPA Purchasing professional who probably has the answer you are looking for.
Phil Tinsley, CPPB
