District Policies – Jefferson County School District R-1
Book:	District Policies – Jefferson County School District R-1
Section:	D: Fiscal Management
Title:	Vendor Relations
Number:	DJG
Status:	Active
Legal:	C.R.S. 24-18-104
Adopted:	06/26/1997
Last Revised:	05/04/2009
Last Reviewed:	05/04/2009

Policy Detail

No Favoritism: No favoritism shall be extended to any vendor. To be considered for the district's bids or proposals, vendors must be approved by the Purchasing department. To be approved for an award, a vendor must be approved by application, pre-qualification, bid/proposal qualification or at the discretion of the director of Purchasing or designee.

Sales Call: To protect the staff and programs against undue invasion of the school or work day, sales representatives shall not be permitted in the schools or other departments for the purpose of making sales calls unless authorized to do so by the director of Purchasing or designee. If special or technical details concerning goods or services to be purchased are required, the involvement of appropriate district employees and vendors is encouraged and may be coordinated by the Purchasing department. Principals and department heads may, however, contact fundraising vendors without any involvement from the Purchasing department.

Gifts: District employees may not accept any gift, service, honorarium, stipend or fee from vendors or sales representatives or use their positions for private advantage or personal financial or material gain. Even creating the perception of accepting anything of value must be avoided by all employees. Exceptions to this policy are the acceptance of consumables that can be shared, greeting cards, calendars and the acceptance of provided lunches with firms having an existing business relationship with the district. Acceptance of these consumables or lunches may not exceed $100 in value. In addition, district staff may, with the approval of the superintendent or designee, accept paid trips to view and analyze new products or processes the district may require. Such trips shall be for evaluation and testing only.

Violations: Reported violations will be investigated by the district. Vendors/sales representatives found to have violated these provisions, may be barred from doing business with the district. Employees may be disciplined according to district policy.

Employee Businesses : No employee except those specifically designated in writing shall be an agent of the district. No employee or firm owned in whole or in part by an employee shall be allowed to sell goods of any kind to the District, nor services of any kind other than those for which he or she was employed. Exceptions may be allowed if there are no other available sources in the marketplace or the sales are clearly in the best interests of the district and provided such purchases are authorized by the director of Purchasing.

District employees may not use their positions for private advantage or personal financial or material gain. District employees may not participate directly or indirectly in the purchasing process if the employee has a direct relationship with a vendor doing business with the district. A direct relationship may include the business being owned by a spouse or immediate family member or the employee being employed by the business. Immediate family members include spouse, child, step-child, parents, siblings, in-laws, grandparents, grandchildren or relative living in the household of the employee. Direct or indirect participation means involvement through decisions, approval, disapproval, recommendation, preparation of any part of a purchase request, influencing the content of any specifications or procurement standard, rendering of advice, investigation, auditing or acting in any other advisory capacity.

The district shall not purchase goods or services for any department or school if the contract is with a business owned by an immediate family member of an employee at that department or school, unless the goods or services are procured through a competitive process by the district purchasing division and determined to be in the district’s best interest.

CROSS REFERENCE:

GBEB, Staff Conduct