City, county leaders discuss giving local contract preference

Wilson County commissioners and Lebanon city councilors met jointly Thursday for a discussion of the best way to go about giving preference to local businesses when it comes to city and county contracts.

City Mayor Philip Craighead and county Mayor Randall Hutto both were in the meeting where the discussion centered around how to show preference to local businesses while still taking a lower bid on contracts and not getting sued in the process.

"Local vendors would have to be pre-qualified," Craighead told the group.
Wilson County commissioners and Lebanon city councilors met jointly Thursday for a discussion of the best way to go about giving preference to local businesses when it comes to city and county contracts.
City Mayor Philip Craighead and county Mayor Randall Hutto both were in the meeting where the discussion centered around how to show preference to local businesses while still taking a lower bid on contracts and not getting sued in the process.
“Local vendors would have to be pre-qualified,” Craighead told the group.
Commissioner and county budget committee chair Mike Justice said parameters would have to be set as to just who qualifies as a “local vendor.”
“We would have to ask how long they have been a local vendor,” Justice said. “Someone could just apply for a license and say they are local.”
Another problem is determining just how local is local. If the company that gets a contract qualifies as local, it doesn’t mean that the sub-contractors used for the job are local.
County Attorney Mike Jennings agreed it would be easy for a company to just open an office and call themselves local.
“For a contract worth millions, I could see someone running in and opening an office and sticking in a telephone and a typewriter and calling themselves local,” Jennings said. “You want to take care of people who are more established.
County Finance Director Aaron Maynard was wary of his office being the one in charge of determining what qualifies as local.
“It would be the finance department checking on every subcontractor and vendor and determining if it’s all local people?” he asked, adding all that research could slow down the process of finding acceptable bids for projects.
Craighead said the identity of subcontractors would have to be part of the bid.
“We would have to find out from them where they’re getting the rock and the lumber, that’s what’s freaking me out,” Maynard said.
“It will be tough,” Hutto said. “When we built the high school, the contractor, R.G. Anderson, had a lot of subs.”
Maynard also noted the hazards of only accepting in-county bids.
“I worry that if out-of-county bidders never get a contract, they’ll stop bidding,” Maynard said. “I’m worried you’ll stifle competition.”
Jennings said the dangers of the process would be a “publicity hit” if people complained they were not being considered for bids or even filing lawsuits.
“If the money is big enough, they may want to sue,” he said.
Justice said he really had no problem with businesses from surrounding counties bidding on contracts in Wilson County because, chances are, those workers might be shopping here as well, resulting in sales tax revenue for the county.
“The out-of-state bidders are the ones that bother me,” he said.
“What’s the next step?” Hutto asked.
Jennings said if the city and county could both pass a private act and get it to the state legislature, where it could have three readings by the end of the session, the law could go into effect this year. If there isn’t enough time to draft such and act, it would have to wait until next year.
“We have to draft a private act written in such a way the finance committee could modify policies consistent with the private act,” Jennings said. “We should have a joint budget meeting and get [the city representatives] involved.”
The group agreed to invite both commissioners and councilors to the next county budget committee meeting set for Thursday evening to explore the best way to word the proposed private act.