Althea Whatley

Althea Whatley serves as the Administrative Contract Manager for the Human Resources Office of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, where she leads the procurement of temporary staffing solutions critical to maintaining operational continuity in public water and wastewater services. In her primary role, she manages the full lifecycle of contingent workforce contracts, ensuring alignment with agency goals of workforce agility, seasonal demand responsiveness, and service reliability. Her acquisitions are exclusively focused on labor-intensive, project-based support, enabling the agency to scale its workforce without long-term personnel commitments. She ensures compliance with federal procurement regulations while prioritizing timely, efficient contract execution to meet urgent staffing needs across field operations and administrative functions. Whatley collaborates with a broad network of temporary help services providers who deliver skilled and unskilled labor across technical, clerical, and field support roles. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she maintains consistent relationships with vendors specializing in rapid workforce deployment, background-checked personnel, and compliance with public sector labor standards. Her contracting approach emphasizes performance-based service level agreements, ensuring accountability for workforce availability, safety training, and adherence to agency protocols. Vendor partnerships are typically structured as task-order contracts under blanket purchase agreements, enabling flexible and responsive staffing adjustments. Whatley’s procurement strategy reflects a firm commitment to open competition, with 100% of her acquisitions conducted without any socioeconomic set-asides. All contracts are awarded through full and open competition, aligning with the agency’s emphasis on maximizing workforce flexibility and minimizing administrative constraints. While small business participation is not mandated, vendors of all sizes compete on equal footing based on service quality, responsiveness, and compliance history. Her procurement focus is singularly concentrated on NAICS 561320 (Temporary Help Services), encompassing the acquisition of temporary administrative assistants, field technicians, equipment operators, and laborers. She specializes in procuring labor services that support seasonal maintenance cycles, emergency response surges, and short-term project needs within water and wastewater infrastructure operations. Her domain expertise lies in understanding the unique workforce dynamics of public utility environments and translating those needs into compliant, performance-driven contracting vehicles.