INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – Six months after approving new rules that give preference to local businesses, County Commissioners learned the ordinance hasn’t changed anything.
Jerry Davis, the county’s purchasing manager, told commissioners that the county has hired 17 businesses to perform specific work. Of those, nine were local and would have been hired regardless of the ordinance due to being the lowest bidders.
Of the non-local hires, six projects did not have local bidders – and the ones that did have local bids came in well over the out-of-area bidders’ proposal.
Commissioners were not asked to continue or remove the local vendor preference ordinance. County staff only briefed them on the affect and implementation of the ordinance.
When the ordinance was approved in July, Commissioner Gary Wheeler predicted that the affect of the ordinance would be inconsequential.
He and fellow commissioner Bob Solari voted against the ordinance when it was first proposed. Wheeler argued that the rule was anti-free trade.
Other commissioners, however, said the ordinance would help to keep county dollars local, or at least in the region.
Commissioner Wesley Davis pointed out at the time of the July vote, that the county had awarded a $1.3 million contract to a company in Naples, Fla., which might have gone to a local company had the ordinance been in place.
The local vendor preference ordinance gives local bidders – defined as businesses with a permanent location and street address and at least one year of doing business in Indian River, St. Lucie, Okeechobee, Osceola or Brevard counties – the chance to meet the price of an out-of-town bidder should the local bid come within 5 percent of the low bid.