Goshen board authorizes use of cooperative purchasing, including Sourcewell

The Goshen Board of Public Works and Safety voted unanimously May 28 to authorize the city to use cooperative purchasing entities, including Sourcewell, as an additional procurement tool.

City staff said cooperative purchasing can yield substantial savings on large or specialized purchases. “As they are a national entity, they are able to procure significant cost savings for the city by buying through them rather than issuing individual bids,” the presenter told the board.

The proposal called for a written legal review and documentation process before any purchase is completed through a cooperative. Legal counsel and board members emphasized that municipalities must retain the cooperative’s bidding records and be able to justify the savings to the State Board of Accounts to avoid audit flags. “We would have to provide our attorney with a summary validating that the item is a special purpose purchase and that significant savings are available,” the legal representative said.

Board members raised practical questions about how to compare a cooperative’s bids with local bid results and whether the cooperative’s bidding process would be sufficiently competitive. Staff said Sourcewell and similar co‑ops send solicitations to a larger vendor pool and can provide comparative bid data.

The motion to authorize the use of nationally recognized cooperative purchasing entities under Indiana Code 5‑22‑10 passed unanimously. City staff said each proposed cooperative purchase will be routed to the city attorney for an opinion and the documentation required by state audit rules before the item returns to the board for formal approval.

The board did not approve any specific purchases at the meeting; it authorized the procedural use of cooperatives subject to future legal review and public board action.