MOULTRIE – Where do local entities that spend taxpayers’ money, stand on using local versus non-local vendors for services, products and construction bids?

This has been a topic of discussion during a couple of meetings, last year, of the Colquitt County Commission, now, leading to an ordinance change in the current “local vendor preference policy,” which specifically outlines, in detail, the buying procedures for county purchases.

In a discussion, during December’s mid-month review, about the fuel contract for the upcoming year, commissioners expressed concerns about the cost of the local vendor’s bid versus a non-local vendor’s bid.

The bids were from Sutton System Sales, Inc., which was cheaper with a six months contract and Rossee Oil Co. Inc., which was cheaper on a 12 months contract.

Commissioner Chris Hunnicutt said, “If we go back to local vendor, Sutton’s got it because Rossee ain’t a local vendor because they’re out of Bainbridge or somewhere.”

County Administrator Chas Cannon responded that Rossee Oil was a local vendor because the way the county defined it in their policy.

“So that makes Walmart a local vendor,” Hunnicutt asked.

Cannon looked up the policy to answer Hunnicutt’s question and put it up on the screen so that they could take a look at it and it was the general consensus that Walmart would be considered a local vendor as a resident.

“If that’s what it says, we need to change it,” said Hunnicutt.

At the time, the county’s policy defined a local vendor as a business that has a fixed office or distribution point with a street address within the county, holds a county or city business license and employs at least one full-time or two part-time employees whose primary residence is within the county or if the business has no employees, it should be owned at least 50 percent by a resident of the county.

“We can change it, I mean, but it’s going to be hard to change it off that because you’re gonna knock out a lot of folks,” said Cannon indicating the policy up on the screen.

Denver Braswell, county commission chairman, asked Lester Castellow, the county’s lawyer how hard it would be to put language in the policy that said ,“owned locally”.

Castellow responded that it wouldn’t be hard to do once they told him how they wanted him to change it.

“As far as building supplies, Holman’s is a local vendor. Lowe’s should not be a local vendor,” said Hunnicutt giving another example.

“But they are under that definition,” responded Castellow.

Commissioner Mike Boyd asked if there would be any repercussions if they changed the policy in the middle of making a decision and Castellow answered that they would need to change the policy beforehand.

“You could require the headquarters to be within the county,” suggested Cannon.

“That would be local,” Hunnicutt agreed.

Braswell said that he understood Hunnicutt’s concern about the “big box stores” being considered local vendors under the current policy and he agreed that it wasn’t all that fair to the local vendors.

There was some discussion that the definition of a local vendor should be changed to a business where the headquarters is actually located within Colquitt County and also adding a one or two percent preference to vendors that were headquartered in the county.

It was decided that Cannon would look at the policy and see how the language could be changed and the commissioners would look at it at the next meeting and possibly vote on the change.

“I think he knows what the goal is,” said Commissioner Marc DeMott.

At the March 5, meeting Castellow presented the updated “local vendor preference policy,” which, now, states that the definition of a “local bidder” means a business that has had a fixed office or distribution point in and having a street address within the geographic limits of the county for at least six months immediately prior to the issuance of the request for bids or quotes by the county, holds any business license required by the county or the City of Moultrie, employs at least one full-time employee or two part-time employees whose primary residence is within the geographic limits of the county and the business shall be at least 50% owned by one or more persons whose primary residence is within the geographic limits of the county.

Also added to the “local vendor preference policy” was a 10% preference for local vendors for purchases under $1,000.

The Colquitt County School System purchasing policy, which follows state policies and Official Georgia Codes related to purchasing, publishes requests for project bids on the State of Georgia Procurement website and also utilizes the State of Georgia Contract website for purchasing. There is no specific local versus non-local policy in place.

The City of Moultrie’s local versus non-local vendor stance is pretty cut and dried.

According to City Manager Pete Dillard, the city has a 5% preference for local businesses. If a bid or price for an item or project is no more than 5% higher than an out of town business, the local business will be chosen.

“Local is our first choice whenever possible and local businesses really work with us very well,” said Dillard.