Andrew Klos, Mba, Cppb Email and Phone Number

I support the City’s Public Works Department with all there contracting needs, especially construction solicitations under AZ Title 34.

After a little more than a year as a Contract Specialist, I was promoted to Senior Contract Officer. The EGSD Satellite is a great team and has been a big part of my success. During a reorganization of the department several months after my promotion, I was transferred to support Tucson Water, a major municipal utility. In support of this large City department, I run solicitations for goods and services. Construction services are a big part of my workload and I have successfully procured these through all the major contract types (IFB/DBB, JOC, CMAR).

I stepped into a new role with the City as it looked to streamline business processes to better serve all our departments and our citizens. I did procurement (i.e. - purchasing) in one of the new satellite offices embedded in a large internal client department. Mine will be the Environmental and General Services Department (EGSD) and I'll be helping make sure this department gets what they need to keep our City clean and running smoothly. That means working with internal clients like Fleet Services on contract renewals for all contracts and creating new solicitations for contracts less than $100,000 total value (per State and City of Tucson Procurement codes). I'll also be helping the Senior and Principal Contract Officers with preparing and publishing formal solicitations (> $100,000 total contract value - IFB/RFP/RFQ).In May 2018, I recently got my first negotiation win and saved the City $540 (pro-rated for a 4 month extension). It may not be a large dollar amount but everyone has to start somewhere and anytime you can save money in a municipal budget setting you're doing well. It's one way Procurement, a back room function not usually seen by the public, constantly proves its value.

I performed organic and inorganic testing of the City drinking water system and I was proud to be helping to keep our water supply safe. Yes, this position may appear like a step backwards after the consulting firm, but sometimes "you can't get there from here", as I've heard many a time vacationing in Maine. Sometimes there is no direct route forward, no easy short cut to get where you think you should be going, so you need to retrace your steps back to the last fork in the road to find your way back on the path.

This was my first attempt at entrepreneurship. From a simple tag line to blog articles and web content, my writing was designed to help my clients get their brand out there. I was a freelancer that created content to drive the social media marketing of my clients. Or I would have if I had more than a thimbleful of them. Like many entrepreneurs before me, I learned several lessons the hard way. The biggest was that even a side hustle like this required considerable resources. It may be a while before I'm ready to try striking out on my own again, but I'll be better prepared when I do. Even icons like Jobs and Musk had their failures and came back stronger. Why not me?

An international engineering​ and consulting firm, I worked from a small regional office on projects requiring environmental remediation. I was in charge of contracting laboratory services for site samples and coordinating what was sampled, when it was sampled, what tests would be run, and how quickly the lab would send back results so I had project management and contract administration duties over the laboratory and sampling. Other Project Management duties included data validation of the lab results according to USEPA National Functional Guidelines and guiding the field personnel on specific chemical issues, such as the test wells for in-situ chemical remediation (potassium permanganate) at the Tucson International Airport Area Superfund site. I worked in virtual and local teams depending on which project I was working on. My projects were spread all across the United States and included clean ups at a number of other Superfund sites and due diligence property investigations and the project clients I dealt with included Fortune 500 companies.

I performed inorganic wet chemistry methods in opporational and regulatory support of regional water reclamation facilities. The tests I performed involved trace nutrient analysis for the parameters of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and complex anions using Lachat QC8500 Flow Injection analyzers. Analysis of Trace mercury by CVAA (EPA Methods 245.1, 7470A, 7471A). OSHA compliance duties I had included performing Job Hazard Analyses. I developed the training and teaching for adult learners in the County's program for new hires for Waste Water Plant Operators. I was a subject matter expert on the topic of Ammonia analysis by Ion Selective Electrode. I gave a lecture and conducted a lab practical lesson for my unit of the training program.

At Alpha (formerly Matrix Analytical), a NELAC Certified laboratory, I was responsible for trace organic analysis using EPA protocols for volatiles, semi-volatiles, herbicides, pesticides and PCBs. Senior level staff members, such as myself, were responsible for primary and secondary review of data generated by junior staff. We also train and directed the junior staff. Some of our projects had requirements to meet USACE and/or Dept of Defense QA/QC criteria. The laboratory safety committee I served on was responsible for OSHA compliance in all work areas.

At AquaAir/SciLab I continued to expand my knowledge of organic preparation and analysis methods, regularly rotating through the preparation department with the other organic staff. Yet here is where I also had the chance to begin learning the preparation of samples for metals analysis, helping out a very busy sister department when ever my regular workload was lighter than usual. A fairly small laboratory when I began, there were many opportunities for cross-training.

I honed my skills in the EPA protocols for volatiles, semi-volatiles, pesticides and PCBs at Clean Harbors and began to learn the sample extraction side of the organic methods. The Bedford facility was concerned primarily with rush work and atypical sample matrices while the Braintree facility dealt more with long term projects with known contaminants (All lab staff was consolidated to Braintree about half way through my tenure with Clean Harbors). Clean Harbors is also where I had the opportunity to become OSHA 40hr HAZWOPER Certified and the first laboratory I had an opportunity to participate in a Safety Committee.

My first position in the environmental field. This is where I first cut my teeth on the EPA protocols for analyzing volatiles, semi-volatiles, pesticides, herbicides, and PCBs. I was also responsible for the preparation of reference standards and organic preparation department spiking mixtures. The majority of samples we ran came from internal clients of the remediation department of OHM.

I had the responsibility for assaying the purity of compressed gases and solvents and the composition of compressed gas mixtures prior to delivery to clients. I was also responsible for helping in the plant area to prepare compressed gas cylinders for filling and could fill daily lots of single pure gases and simple two component gas mixtures. I had project management responsibilities for running the proprietary acetonitrile purification process and ascertaining purity of bulk sulfur dioxide cylinders (2 ton weight) in the company's Battery Products division. I received plenty of experience running a hydraulic crane system to move those two bulk chemicals around the facility and load them into shipping containers.