Prince Frederick, MD –  As part of an effort to make Calvert County Government friendlier to local business, the county commissioners had the Department of Finance and Budget present them with an overview of the current bid process along with ways to help local vendors.

As Department of Finance and Budget Director Tim Hayden explained during a Tuesday, March 31 work session, the commissioners had expressed concerns after a local business lost a contract “by a narrow margin” to an out of county vendor.

Hayden noted county government contract bidding procedures and guidelines for awarding projects and services to vendors is codified in state law applying to Calvert. Currently, legislation is pending in Annapolis that would make some significant policy changes, including increasing the amount of a contract requirement for formalized bidding from $15,000 to $50,000.

The four options offered to the commissioners were: continuing with the current procedure, enact a “local vendor preference” policy, provide additional local considerations or enact a “reciprocal preference.”

Enacting a local preference policy would hold the possibility of a few plusses, possibly keeping money within the community, encouraging local businesses to bid for work within the community and affording county residents with local job opportunities. However, the list of adverse impacts of a local preference, as outlined by Calvert Government Purchasing Officer Robert Baker, was much longer. Among other things, “it violates the integrity and spirit of the bidding process, is subject to legal challenge, results in inconsistent award processes [and] the reduction in competition could eventually result in higher costs,” Baker stated.

Any change in policy would need Maryland General Assembly approval. The county would also need to come up with a fairly unambiguous definition of what constitutes a “local” company.

“My only concern is when do we become liable,” said Commissioner Pat Nutter [R – District 2]

It was the latter of the four options that found favor with the board. According to county government staff, a reciprocal preference is applied when an out-of-county business from a jurisdiction with a preference law responds to a Calvert County Government solicitation. If the reciprocal preference is enacted, Calvert Government may apply the business’s home jurisdiction preference against that business’s bid.

Among the jurisdictions in Maryland with a policy of preference for local vendors, three are nearby—St. Mary’s, Charles and Prince George’s counties. Anne Arundel has no preference policy.

“Everything is jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Commissioner Mike Hart [R – District 1], who advocats awarding contracts in a manner of displaying “the value of the person here. They are bringing so much to the table. We’ve seen some big money leave here.”

The data provided by the Department of Finance and Budget backed up Hart’s big money claim. During Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 only 14 percent of the money encumbered by county government in purchase orders ($4 million of $28.6 million) was encumbered to county-based businesses. The FY 2014 figure was slightly lower than the numbers for the three previous fiscal years. Statistics for formal bids indicates many county businesses are not responding to bid solicitations. In FY 2014 county based businesses responded to 20 of the over 80 bids solicited. “Of those 20 responses, eight contracts were awarded to county-based businesses.”

Commissioner Evan K. Slaughenhoupt Jr. [R – District 3] (pictured above) admitted the reciprocal preference option “appears to be favorable in a selfish way,” adding that in this case “selfish” would not be a bad thing since it would provide ‘balance.” Slaughenhoupt observed that as a result of several counties enacting a local there has been an “unleveling [of] the playing field.”

The reciprocal preference option, said Slaughenhoupt, “really keeps the costs [of services and projects] from going up too high. It’s a viable step in the right direction.”

The commissioners voted unanimously to instruct staff to bring back information on a reciprocal preference policy.

Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com