The City of Tacoma has a new way for citizens to learn what surplus items and property the City has available through a Web page at http://www.cityoftacoma.org/surplus/.

Used equipment, furniture, office machines and other items that have no further public use by the City can be declared as surplus property and sold. The City will advertise these items, including real estate property, for formal bid or best offer on the Web page. Free items are also posted on the Web page.

“Often, items that are still serviceable become surplus to the City’s needs because of staff reductions, incompatibility with City standards or other reasons,” said Purchasing Manager Helen Small. “The City is not interested in filling storage space or the landfills with items that may still be useful for other organizations, businesses or individuals in our community. Our goal is to sell surplus property that has commercial value and return the proceeds to the City treasury whenever possible.”

All surplus property sold or transferred through the Web page are “as is” and the recipient must sign a “hold harmless” release when accepting the property. Surplus real estate property may have special conditions for sale, as stipulated in the formal bid requests.

Questions about the City’s surplus property program can be directed to the Purchasing Section of the Finance Department’s Procurement and Payables Division at (253) 502-8163.