Vendors: Doing Business with Colorado Mountain College

How to do Business with CMC

Introduction

Colorado Mountain College values our business partners and the contributions you make in supporting our staff, faculty and students. The purchasing department is committed to a transparent and inclusive contracting process that awards college work to responsive and responsible vendors. This webpage contains the information you need to do business with CMC and all of the forms and documents you may need to access in our business together.

Authority to purchase

The Colorado Mountain College Board of Trustees is responsible for entering contracts and agreements on behalf of the college. Each year the Board designates that authority to our President who names two designees: 1) the Chief Operations Officer and 2) the Purchasing and Contracts Director. Those three individuals are authorized to sign contacts and agreements for the college. Purchasing decisions at CMC are decentralized and personnel at the campus and department level interact directly with our vendors. The issuance of purchase orders and contracts is centralized in the purchasing department however. For expenditures of more than $5,000 a vendor must be issued a purchase order or blanket purchase order by the CMC purchasing department prior to delivery or performance.

Tax Exempt Status

Colorado Mountain College, as a public agency, is exempt from all applicable federal, state and local taxes. Our tax exempt number is 98-00796 and the certificate is available .

Spending and competitive limits

CMC is funded in large part with taxpayer money and has a fiduciary responsibility to protect the public trust. The following limits are designed to get appropriate approval internally to commit funds and to ensure that our vendor community has the opportunity to compete for CMC projects:

• Expenditures of more than $1,000 require a second college employee to approve internally prior to purchase. Most college purchasing cards are set at a limit of $1,000 and need to be raised by the purchasing department to accommodate a larger transaction. It is against CMC policy to split a charge of more than $1,000 into two or more transactions to avoid these limits. Please contact our purchasing manager if you are asked to split a charge of more than $1,000 into multiple transactions.
• Expenditures of more than $5,000 require a Purchase Order to be issued prior to the goods being delivered and/or service(s) being provided.
• Purchases of goods of more than $10,000 and services of more than $25,000 are subject to a required competitive process.
• Contracts of value greater than $100,000 in any year must be signed by both the Purchasing Manager and Chief Operating Officer.
• Contracts of more than $250,000 require pre-approval from the Board of Trustees. Please be advised that meetings are somewhat infrequent (about 7 per year) and the purchase request may need to come in front of the Board more than once. If you are providing goods or services of more than $250,000 allow plenty of time for the process to take place prior to a CMC purchase order being issued.
• Construction projects of more than $50,000 are required to have contractors carry payment and performance bonds.

Bids, RFPs and RFQs

The college issues a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for goods or a Request for Proposal (RFP) for services over $25,000. Purchases of product between $10,000 and $25,000 may be made after three competing quotes have been obtained without a formal RFQ document being issued. In most cases ongoing service agreements are bid every three to four years.

We announce all RFQs and RFPs using Rocky Mountain e-Procurement and manage the process on our website. Use the navigation link to the left to visit the RFP/RFQ page.

Vendor Registration

It is not necessary for vendors to be pre-registered with CMC or be on a pre-approved vendor list. We establish a vendor in our accounting system the first time we do business together. To register as a vendor simply complete the  along with a current W-9.  Vendors should submit a vendor registration form and W-9 if they haven’t done so within in the past three years. We regret that our staff cannot accommodate all vendors seeking an introductory meeting.

If you are a firm that provides services that may be utilized by our facilities team or are otherwise considered high risk by the college you are required to carry general liability and other coverage. To avoid scrambling to submit a compliant insurance certificate and negotiate an hourly rate for service at the beginning of a project, vendors are welcome to submit hourly rate(s) for services and their insurance certificate to be kept on file in the purchasing department. Please submit this information to Linda Ouellette, louellette@coloradomtn.edu.

How to accept payment

CMC relies on a purchasing card program for relatively small purchases of goods and (non-facilities related) services. CMC prefers to pay with a p-card in many of these situations. If the service is high risk or related to our facilities the terms and conditions of our purchase order apply and the vendor will be required to submit an insurance certificate that is compliant with the requirements provided below. Purchases of less than $5,000 will be paid through our voucher system.

All expenditures must have a description of the product and or services in the form of a proposal, estimate, agreement or invoice before we can release the funds. Expenditures of more than $1,000 must have that description prior to purchase.

Invoices should be sent to the CMC personnel responsible for the purchase at the “ship-to” address on the purchase order. It is the responsibility of the individual sites to process an invoice for payment. The site will then send the processed invoice to Accounts Payable for payment. Checks are issued every Thursday.

Purchase terms default to net 30 days. In most cases we will elect to pay early and receive any early payment discounts. Vendors and contractors providing services to the college and/or goods that require an outlay of funds from the vendor prior to CMC payment may be paid in more than one installment in some cases, subject to CMC approval. Please submit any such request on the Vendor Registration Form.

All purchases of more than $5,000 require a purchase order.

Insurance Requirements

CMC requires all vendors to be insured. In cases of service providers doing work related to our facilities or otherwise considered higher risk the college will require a current, compliant insurance certificate. You can send our CMC Insurance Requirements to your insurance agent or broker and they will work directly with our risk management team to make sure the certificate is compliance. Our requirements are standard and used by most public entities.

Multiple Fiscal Year Obligations

All financial obligations of the College subsequent to the fiscal year ending June 30 are contingent upon funds being appropriated, budgeted or otherwise made available by the Board of Trustees. Please see our Purchase Order  for more information.

Indemnification

Indemnification is holding another party harmless in the event a problem occurs. Because there is no way to know what that contingent liability may be in the future, it is not possible for CMC to appropriate those funds. As a result, it is not lawful for CMC to indemnify another party. Vendor indemnification provisions will be excluded by the College in any contracts or agreements. Any exceptions to this must be approved by our General Counsel.

Purchase Order Terms and Conditions

For purchases that commit the college to more than $5,000 a purchase order must be issued. A valid purchase order is the only official authorization issued by the college to a vendor authorizing payment. Vendors should never agree to furnish the college with a product or service without a valid purchase order.