Coyman Is New Procurement Official For Sarasota County

Sarasota County has a new Procurement Official, hoping that it can fix controversy and mistakes the county has made in that area.

Sarasota County Administrator Randall Reid has named current Contract Manager Ted Coyman Jr. as the county's new Procurement Official, the county announced in a release Monday morning. The appointment was effective Friday.

Coyman has participated in the implementation of changes to the procurement system, a process that is continuing.

"We have good people who are working hard to improve the system, and we are making progress," Coyman said in a prepared statement. "We are a service-oriented function and that means we need to provide a best-in-class product to all areas of county government and vendors, and we need to do it with complete transparency."

Coyman replaces Mark Thiele, who resigned in June after that should have had approval by the Board of County Commissioners but instead attempted to cover up his mistake.

Thiele was appointed by then Interim Manager Terry Lewis as a way to help fix the county's procurement procedures after the  among other officials, including .

In an e-mail to county staff on Friday, County Administrator Randall Reid said more changes are in store beyond Coyman.

"We will make additional staffing changes as necessary to continuously improve our processes and produce the final versions of our new Procurement Code and Manual," Reid wrote. "Your input on these changes will continued to be sought as we implement the professional recommendations of our outside review of our procurement process. Training likewise will be focused on new procedures for key employees as implemented."

Coyman has worked with procurement departments in both the public and private sector, obtaining accreditation as a Certified Professional Public Buyer. He is a member of the Florida Association of Public Procurement Officials and has a security clearance from the U.S. Department of Defense. He has worked in procurement at the local, state and federal levels of government. 

"We are fortunate that Mr. Coyman has been helping us with contract management these last few months," said Nora Patterson, Sarasota County Commissioner in a prepared statement. "His experience working with our procurement staff will result in a smooth transition and ensure that we continue to make progress in improving the system."

The selection of Coyman follows his original entry into Sarasota County last year as a candidate for the Procurement Official position.

"Mr. Coyman was an impressive finalist for the job last year so we went back to the same selection committee seeking  its endorsement of this move and it was met with immediate approval," Reid said in a statement. "It is my expectation that major progress will be made over the next six months toward our goal of creating a premiere procurement system."

Coyman will report to Deputy Administrator Bill Little.