"I was little and skinny until I quit smoking. That was 13 years ago," said Fairfield's purchasing director.
Twig Holland is still quite trim, but the moniker has long since become the formal name of the woman who made the move from New Jersey to this state 21 years ago.
"I love Connecticut. It's just one big small town. I don't think people who've been raised here realize what a real small town environment this is."
That's a positive for Holland who grew up in a small town in rural New Jersey.
(And, she firmly reminds you, "rural" and "New Jersey" are not mutually exclusive.) Her small burg was Frenchtown, which celebrates Bastille Day every year with fireworks and a big party. "It had just 1,400 people when I was growing up and it still has 1,400 people - probably the same ones," she said of the town that she describes as having a lot of Victorian gingerbread homes built in the 1860s.
She took a small grandson to the town park a while back and found the same monkey bars and the same swings she had played on many years before. The only change? They've put safety fiber under the swings.
It's often said that people from small towns are nice and Holland won't disappoint.
She has a casual friendliness and a low-key demeanor.
She's a Yankee fan and an ex-high school-softball player who spends hours playing catch with a 9-year-old grandson. Clearly that's a high priority with her.
As purchasing director, she buys everything that the town needs, from a skate park to road salt, from guns to school desks, from life guard sweatshirts to office copiers, from parts for a robot to roof replacements, from baby wipes to a wireless area network, from asphalt to influenza vaccine.
"We never get bored," she said.
She began her career 30 years ago, buying spare parts for a Swedish company called Alfa Laval. Then one day the purchasing manager left and someone said, "You. Come in here," and asked her if she would be the head purchaser. She tried it and liked it.
Alfa Laval made processing equipment, mainly for dairies. Holland bought homogenizers, centrifuges, water valves, pumps and stainless steel tubing from all over the world: Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, France and the United States. In turn it was sold to big companies like Kraft, Archer Daniels Midland, Beatrice Foods, and big dairies like Hood.
Then Alfa Laval got into turn-key operations, which meant they would build an entire plant. So, she hired contractors, welders, tile-layers, and bought all the equipment from bricks to tile grout.
Does that mean that purchasing for the Town of Fairfield is child's play for her?
"Absolutely not," she said, pointing out that she'd never bought a fire-truck before coming here.
And while she had bought all the equipment needed for a factory, she had never done that for a school or library.
As purchasing director, Holland works with the fire, police, public works and other departments to determine the specifications of what they need. The departments do much of the heavy lifting, but the needed item must not be so specific that it excludes a lot of bidders. "We want competition," said Holland.
"The police want Crown Victorias and that's fine because there are a lot of Ford dealers who can supply that car," she said.
Some items can be bought from a state-approved list of contractors, meaning the state has already bargained for a certain price. Any municipality can then buy the items at the state-negotiated price, which usually is very attractive because of high volume, Holland said.
The state list is fine for school supplies, asphalt, and medical supplies for the fire department and schools, but a concessionaire for kayak and canoe rentals at Jennings Beach needs to have a separate proposal.
In fact, professional services, such as the financial auditor for the town, or architects for a school, are exempt from public bidding, but the policy is to put most requests for such services on the town's web site and in the local newspaper anyway. However, in the case of professional services, "We're not required to look only at price," said Holland.
"If the town were to look at an architect for a new Town Hall, we would ask if they've designed a government building before. And we'd ask whether it was within an historic district. We'd look at talent and creativity. That's why professional services are exempt. Because cost isn't the only determining factor," she said.
"Our experience with building committees is that they do tend to be architects or engineers," said Holland, who noted that the volunteers do a lot of work behind the scenes. For Stratfield School renovations, a sub-committee narrowed 15 to 18 responses from architects to 5 who were invited to make a presentation.
Holland checked all references, calling clients for similar or more complicated projects. Did the architect's previous projects come in on-time and on-budget?
Did the same team see the project through? Was there a long list of change orders because the architect didn't provide the correct documents in the first place? How busy is the architect now? Is the firm too busy to keep on-schedule and do quality work?
"We actually have a check-list that we go through," said Holland.
Regardless of whether she's buying professional services or T-shirts for lifeguards, "I am very much a hands-on working manager and have always authored bid documents. If my name goes on it, it's going to be as good as you can get it," said Holland.
"You have to write well and not only for clarity, but also concisely," she said, adding that on the other hand, "For some projects, there's no way to do the Reader's Digest version. People have to understand what you want so they can bid it."
"What I don't want to hear (from bidders) is 'But that's not what you said.' That does a great disservice to the bidder. There's a cost associated whenever someone gives us a bid. They had to do a walk-through or call suppliers for costs," Holland pointed out.
"Anyone who bids on our jobs, uses their resources to put a bid together. That's why we work hard to make sure our bids are very clear and the town doesn't have to defend itself on having a project that is underfunded."
Holland is certified as a purchasing manager by the Institute for Supply Management. "I have life-time certification because of testing and on-the-job experience," said Holland, "but I still attend seminars and workshops annually.
There's always something new to learn."
And the rest of us learn something from Holland every month. She is one of many purchasing managers who answers a questionnaire for the Institute for Supply Management. That, in turn, becomes part of the ISM "Report on Business" that the Wall Street Journal and major news outlets publish every month. It tells whether new orders are growing, whether prices are rising or falling, and whether production, employment, and inventories are contracting or expanding.
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