Danny Mays has a phrase for the way things used to be, before thousands of Americans started dying each day from COVID-19 and everyone else stayed in their homes: blue-sky days. Mays’ job has shifted into overdrive, as he and the 38 people that report to him have scrambled to compete with other states
WASHINGTON — Danny Mays has a phrase for the way things used to be, before thousands of Americans startedMays, 36, is the director of procurement for the state of Maryland. Until a month ago, that job meant he was making deals for the state on everything from construction jobs to software and technology. But now it’s all medical equipment, all the time.
“In blue sky days the state doesn’t prepay for anything,” Mays said. “In China right now to secure orders we’re seeing 50 percent or more deposits required to secure these orders. If you don’t get into that space and compete in that space then New York is going to get the items or Florida is going to or someone is.”
At first, Mays tried to manage the incoming through his own e-mail, but drowned under the 1,000 or so inquiries a day. Since then, the Maryland Department of Emergency Management has set up a central e-mail that vendors can go through, and they have a triage team that weeds through those e-mails and forwards promising leads on to Mays and his team. He’s down now to dealing with a mere 50 a day.
After lunch he’s on a 1 p.m. call with others on his team to prepare for a 2 p.m. call that is the largest virtual gathering of the day, of the state’s surge capacity action team, which brings together hospital representatives and others from the health care sector with a range of state government officials like Mays and from other agencies like emergency management.
Officials at the Maryland Department of Commerce and the state’s Housing and Development agency are helping Mays’ team to decipher which brokers are acting in bad faith — or don’t have the know-how and might be suckers for someone else posing as a manufacturer — and which ones actually have the relationships and experience to obtain medical equipment. Mays and his team are also in touch with contacts in China who further help them vet the business entities they are dealing with.
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