Within the City of Hamilton’s municipal operations, there is one staff role that stands out as essential to both sustainability and environmental responsibility: the Procurement Surplus Coordinator. My name is Costa Tsangarakis, and I am the Procurement Surplus Coordinator for the City of Hamilton. It’s my role and responsibility to coordinate the disposal process across all City departments, and to ensure to the best of my ability that unused and obsolete items are either repurposed, resold, or disposed of in an environmentally responsible way. From furniture to vehicles and office equipment, the Procurement Surplus Coordinator handles it all, saving taxpayers money and supporting green initiatives along the way. Let me provide you with a closer look into this important position.
Behind the Scenes of Surplus Management
As Procurement Surplus Coordinator, my day-to-day is a balancing act of inventory management, logistics, and strategic planning. In any municipality, there’s always surplus or obsolete goods that have outlived their usefulness and my responsibility is to manage this surplus efficiently. From ensuring that every item is accounted for, to reallocating when possible and finally disposing of the items in a responsible way when they no longer have value.
The City of Hamilton prioritizes the following sustainable disposition methods:
- By repurposing internally (Repurpose)
- By sale or lease to another organization (Repurpose)
- By external advertisement (Repurpose)
- By donation to a non-profit (Repurpose)
- By recycling (Recycle)
This role requires a keen eye for value, attention to detail, and a solid understanding of municipal resources. Through this work, I not only save the City of Hamilton significant amounts of money, but also help to reduce the City’s carbon footprint. The careful management of surplus goods ensures that useful resources are diverted from landfills and ultimately, assisting the work towards broader sustainability goals.
Key Responsibilities
Well, it’s more than just cleaning up!
1. Inventory Oversight:
- Every item deemed as surplus will need to be catalogued and evaluated. This requires proper documentation, appropriate photos, potentially measurements, and a cataloging system. Attention to detail and a thorough understanding of the item is essential for a successful disposition.
- Physically visiting the item is crucial to the success of this position, while also fostering a collaborative environment with the departments that initiated the disposal process.
2. Disposition Methods:
- Repurposing – Deemed surplus to one department, does not necessarily mean surplus to another, they are potential resources. Whether it’s office supplies, furniture, or vehicles – I ensure these items are put to good use within other departments should they need them.
- Donation – Establishing a roster of non-profit organizations that are willing to accept your surplus goods is imperative to success. At the City of Hamilton, we ask our departments to potentially identify a non-profit that would benefit from their surplus. Donation is an ideal disposition method, although there can be risk associated with it as well. A release waiver is recommended to avoid risk.
- Auction – the City of Hamilton utilizes two auction services to assist with the surplus disposal process. They are; Bryan’s Auction and GovDeals. Bryan’s Auction is typically utilized for the sale and auction of fleet vehicles, buses and larger industrial equipment. GovDeals is more so for smaller items, such as office furniture, electronics, and other wares.
- Recycling – As of 2022, the City of Hamilton has outsourced scrap metal recycling processes to Vic’s Bins. This is a corporate-wide contract that any user within the City can utilize to recycle scrap metals and create revenue from the associated metals.
3. Compliance & Reporting:
- Municipalities are held to high standards of accountability. As the Surplus Coordinator, I ensure all transactions are properly documented and compliant with City processes. I also ensure that we are recording and reporting on the types of surplus goods, the quantities, and the associated values for each item. Regular reporting ensures that there is transparency as many industries are governed by strict regulations regarding the disposal of surplus goods. A great example is hazardous waste, or medical equipment used by Public Health Services.
- Efficient tracking and reporting allow us to identify patterns in resource allocation. For example, we can determine where resources are being overstocked, which ultimately improves decision making and reduces waste.
The Community Connection
As with any role, building meaningful connections is imperative to success. With the Procurement Surplus Coordinator role, one has the freedom to network and build connections with many different stakeholders in the municipal realm.
When determining if an item can be repurposed internally, I will take the time to reach out to all departments within the City of Hamilton and propose the question. If applicable, I can even point out why I believe this item will be useful to them. This shows understanding of the City’s different departmental needs, rather than checking off a step in our process.
When auctioning items to the public, the Procurement Surplus Coordinator acts as an ambassador for the city. I assist the successful bidder with coordination of pick- up, answering all questions they may have, and providing them with accurate details about the item(s) they bid on.
At the end of the day, my role as the Procurement Surplus Coordinator allows me to foster connections while also supporting the community.
Overcoming Challenges
While the Procurement Surplus Coordinator’s role is rewarding, it’s not without its challenges. With so many departments and diverse inventory items, keeping track of surplus can be an overwhelming task. However, it’s also an opportunity to innovate— whether it’s implementing better tracking systems or finding more efficient ways to redistribute or recycle materials. The ever-evolving landscape of procurement provides ample room for creativity and improvement.
Some of the challenges we have faced at the City of Hamilton are detailed below, as well as their respective solution:
|
Challenge |
Costa’s Solution |
|
Large Amounts of Inventory |
As Procurement Surplus Coordinator, we have no idea how much surplus will come our way in each day. It is important to inventory the surplus using digital tools and to provide each item with a surplus tracking number that can be referenced later. |
|
Space Constraints |
As with any organization, space can be tight. At the City of Hamilton, the department is responsible for storage of their surplus. In my role, I tend to prioritize the items that take up the most amount of space or have the highest value. This allows me to shorten timelines for our departments and have those items gone sooner. |
|
Employee Engagement |
Creating and presenting informational sessions to City departments is incredibly beneficial to solve this challenge. Many staff are rightfully focused on their role, rather than the task of surplus disposal. By creating and providing information sessions to staff, I have been able to educate staff on simple processes and create consistent systems that staff can rely on. |
In Conclusion
As Procurement Surplus Coordinators, we may not always be in the spotlight, but the impact of our work is noticed across the entire municipality. Through strategic surplus management, I assist the City in saving money, reducing waste, and promoting sustainability. All of this, while also fostering positive community relationships wherever I go. This work ensures that municipal operations run smoothly, efficiently, and environmentally responsibly.
The next time you see an auction for surplus government equipment or hear about a donation to a local school, remember—it’s the hard work of a dedicated Procurement Surplus Coordinator, like me, that makes it all possible.
Left: Dental Bus from Public Health Services internally transferred to the City of Hamilton’s Emergency Services Division for training purposes.
Right: Hamilton Street Railway Bus donated to Mohawk College for experiential learning opportunities within their Truck & Coach Apprenticeship Program.