Everyone, including City Attorney Dennis Hererra, is talking about how City Controller Ben Rosenfield alleges that Florida-based Office Depot has overcharged SF to the tune of $5.75 million for office supplies ordered over 4 1/2 years.
Office Depot begs to differ, saying in a statement that:
We are currently involved in a disagreement with the Office of the Controller for the City and County of San Francisco regarding its recently released audit report. We have enjoyed a five-year relationship with the City and County of San Francisco, our customer. During this time our customer received considerable savings and extended our original three-year agreement for an additional two years. While we strongly disagree with the Controller’s audit, we are working with our customer to come to a mutually acceptable resolution. Office Depot has a long-standing commitment to meeting the needs of our customers every day. When issues do arise, we work closely with our customers to amicably resolve the situation.
The Chronicle notes that Office Depot’s contract with the city expired the end of November, and that we’ve switched to Massachusetts-based
Staples “for office supplies for at least the next six months as it prepares to put the contract out to bid.”
Our question: If you’re gonna get gouged, why not get gouged by a local company like Patrick and Co.? Does that Shop Local thing not apply in this case? We thought this was an interesting enough question that we called the Controller’s office to find out how the decision to do with OD was made in the first place, but haven’t gotten a call back. If or when we do, we’ll update!
