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Wynkoop hopes that his colleagues in other states leverage the work that his team has put into stimulus-related contracts. "We are all going to have weatherization dollars, why shouldn't we go to the manufacturers of insulation and heaters together? Other states that may have gotten a later start than we did on this should just use our contracts."

Gragan hopes that one of the lasting legacies of the stimulus implementations is wide adoption of some of the changes to the procurement process forced by the legislative mandates and operational realities of the ARRA. "If we do this right, there is no reason why we shouldn't take the key developments and make them part of our standard operating processes. We should have ubiquitous contact with the vendor community. We should have constant and ongoing dialogue with our suppliers," he says. "Too often today, we see contracting as 'What can you do for me?' It should be two-way. We are notorious for our inability to do things quickly. I respect the fact that our processes are intended to be deliberative to protect public money, but thinking doesn't need to take 120 days."

Lancaster agrees. "The ARRA bill highlights the difficult balance that procurement directors always have to deal with: moving stimulus money into the private sector fast, effectively, in an accountable way, balancing the need for supporting the local economy with the need for fair and open competition that drives aggressive pricing. We're always on these pivot points, but this only exacerbates or highlights these pressures because of the sheer number of dollars we are talking about. When you combine big dollars and need for speed, you are in for a wild ride."

Gragan fears that if procurements take too long or are poorly handled, there could be a movement to cast aside procurement rules and processes that are in place to protect the integrity of the system. "The ARRA bill puts a huge magnifying glass on our profession. If we get it wrong, we would substantiate the view in some peoples' minds that if we need to get something done quickly, we need to set aside the procurement rules. But if we get better at what we do, get closer to our customers, to fire chiefs and police chiefs, if they know that we are here to help them not hinder them, the whole world changes. If we don't do that, we only reinforce the belief that if you have an emergency, you need to get procurement people out of the way."

"We cannot afford to screw this up," Wynkoop says. "People think pretty highly of our work at IDOA procurement. If we gum this up and force people to lose funds because we didn't get a procurement out in time, they will go back to saying what they always said about procurement in the old days, that we slow the process down, that we add bureaucracy, that we don't get good deals. We are committed to getting it right and not going backward."

Gragan succinctly sums up what stimulus contracting means for the procurement community. "It is either a 'hero' or 'zero' proposition," he says.

As a former public procurement professional, I hope that when the history books are written on this chapter, we are all remembered as heroes.

David Yarkin, former deputy secretary for procurement in Pennsylvania's Department of General Services, is president of Government Sourcing Solutions, headquartered in Washington, D.C. Contact him at dyarkin@govsourcing.com.

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