County plans 'opportunity economy' framing and p‑card changes to boost local purchasing

Larimer County staff proposed updates to the strategic‑plan language to reframe economic objectives as an "opportunity economy" and to emphasize development of Northern Colorado’s care workforce.

Kelsey Bond, objective team leader in economic and workforce development, described possible paired goals and tracking metrics for the opportunity‑economy vision. Bond said the county will launch a new purchasing‑card (p‑card) rollout in early March with mandatory training and an internal resource page that includes a searchable vendor list for restaurants and caterers to make local purchasing easier and trackable.

"With the new purchasing cards coming out countywide in early March...that will also be the launch of our power the p card training...we will be providing a resource landing page," Bond said, noting the list will pull from publicly available vendor data and be searchable by capacity and ordering options.

Staff also discussed anchor‑institution training (how to do business with Larimer County), a language‑access one‑pager, and pilot local‑spend commitments as part of a broader procurement strategy. Commissioners expressed support and asked staff to present measurable goals and scalable targets rather than set arbitrary percentages without operational work behind them.

No formal board action was taken during the presentation.