Escambia County’s chair serves as county purchasing agent, and the purchasing agent must handle county purchasing, records, inventory, requisitions, and a $15,000 bond requirement.
(a) The Chair of the Board of County Commissioners of Escambia County shall serve as county purchasing agent without additional compensation. The county purchasing agent shall purchase for the county officials, the county offices, and every department of the county, all books, stationery, supplies, office equipment, printing and printing matter, blanks, forms, machinery, equipment, tools, materials, supplies, and contractual services needed by such county officials, offices, and departments. Subject to the approval of the Board of County Commissioners, the purchasing agent shall have authority to do all of the following: (1) Establish standard specifications for supplies, equipment, and materials used by the county officials, offices, and departments. (2) Operate a central storeroom. (3) Require county officers, offices, and departments to prepare estimates of requirements. (4) Transfer among the county officers, offices, and departments surplus supplies, equipment, and materials, or to sell surplus or obsolete items after receiving at least three competitive bids upon such surplus or obsolete items. (5) Promulgate reasonable rules and regulations governing the acquisition of supplies, materials, and equipment, or the disposal of surplus or obsolete personal property of the county. (b) Supplies, materials, equipment, and services shall be furnished to the county officers, offices, and departments only upon written requisition setting forth the articles needed and signed by the officer for whose office the articles are requested. The requisitions shall state by items the articles that are desired and needed, that the articles are necessary, that the amount of the requisition is not excessive, and that no part of the articles will be used except in conducting the public business. The requisitions, with the purchase invoices attached, shall be kept on file in the office of the purchasing agent, in an orderly manner, as a permanent record subject to public inspection at all reasonable times. (c) The purchasing agent shall keep a current inventory of all property owned or leased by the county, which inventory record shall show where such property is located and in whose possession or under whose control it is. (d) Before entering upon the discharge of his or her duties, the county purchasing agent shall execute a bond in the sum of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000). The bond shall be payable to Escambia County, with good and sufficient surety, and shall be conditioned upon the faithful discharge and performance of his or her duties. The bond shall be filed and recorded in the office of the judge of probate of the county, and the premium thereon shall be paid by the county.