PORTAGE, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The controversy over trash pickups in Portage may trigger a change in city policy.
There were a lot of complaints from opponents of the city’s single-hauler plan that they would be awarding the contract to a big national company, Waste Management, taking a lot of business away from a local firm Best Way, eliminating local jobs.
That prompted city council member Nicole Miller to suggest they add a local preference policy to their bidding process for city contracts.
She says some local jurisdictions already have such policies in place.
Miller says even with such a policy in place, Best Way’s bid for the waste hauling contract would not have qualified because it was so much more expensive than the winning bid.
Preference policies are designed to keep the millions spent by local governments circulating in the local economy, creating local jobs as much as possible. They vary in other requirements and stipulations.
Council member Chris Burns says he is willing to work on the idea.
Local governments don’t always have to take the lowest bid. If a vendor can offer a better product, an additional service or has some other advantage over other bids, they can be chosen over a lower bid. The questions are; what qualifies as local, and does that alone outweigh the slightly higher cost?
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