REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
DATE: Regular Meeting of September 10, 2024
TO: Mayor and Members of the City Council
VIA: Dante Hall, City Manager
SUBMITTED BY: Christie Crowl, Acting City Attorney
Christina Lawrence, Special Counsel
SUBJECT: Local Vendor Preference Ordinance
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Waive first reading and approve for introduction Ordinance No. ___ (Attachment 1) adding Title 2, Chapter 5, Sections 2-5.01 to 2-5.03 to the Hercules Municipal Code to codify the City’s local vendor preference for the purchase of goods and services.
BACKGROUND:
At its June 25, 2024 regular meeting, the City Council directed staff and the City Attorney’s office to prepare an ordinance to incorporate the City’s existing local vendor preference, as set forth in the City’s Purchasing Guidelines, into the City’s Municipal Code.
ANALYSIS:
The City’s Purchasing Guidelines, adopted September 10, 2019, include a local vendor preference that applies to City purchases of goods and services, excluding public works and federally-funded procurements. Local vendors contribute to the economic health of the City and to the quality of life of the City’s citizens. Thus, the City encourages the growth of local vendors by means of increasing the participation of these vendors in the City’s purchase of goods and services.
Since adoption of the Purchasing Guidelines in 2019, staff is not aware of any situations in which the local preference has been implemented or applied. In order to better integrate the preference into the City’s purchasing practices, the City Council has indicated its intent to adopt the local vendor preference by ordinance, so that it can be codified in the City’s Municipal Code. The attached ordinance reflects the City’s existing local vendor preference with the following minor modifications, for purposes of codification in the Municipal Code:
The preference in the City’s Purchasing Guidelines includes an exclusion for federal grant funded purchases that relies on defined terms used in the City’s Purchasing Guidelines. For simplicity, staff and the City Attorney’s office propose to incorporate an exclusion for both state and federal grant funded purchases directly into the language of the preference without the use of defined terms.
The preference in the City’s Purchasing Guidelines includes a reference to “proposals or quotes,” but otherwise refers to “quotes” throughout the remainder of the preference. Staff and the City Attorney’s office propose deletion of the reference to “proposals” for consistency with the remainder of the preference.
The preference in the City’s Purchasing Guidelines states that it applies when two or more quotes are “the same, in unit, quality, service, and total cost.” Staff and the City Attorney’s office propose to clarify that the preference applies when two or more quotes are “comparable in unit, quality, and service,” without reference to “total cost” since the reference to “total cost” is ambiguous in the context of the preference.
The preference in the City’s Purchasing Guidelines provides that preference “should be given” to a local vendor if certain criteria are met. Staff and the City Attorney’s office propose to revise the language to provide that preference “may be given” to a local vendor if certain criteria are met in order to afford greater flexibility in the City’s purchasing decisions.
As directed by the Council at its June 25, 2024 meeting, staff and the City Attorney’s office present for introduction an ordinance adding the City’s local vendor preference to the Hercules Municipal Code as Title 2, Chapter 5, Sections 2-5.01 to 2-5.03.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There are no direct fiscal impacts associated with this item.
ATTACHMENTS:
Ordinance
Staff Report to the City Council from the June 25, 2024 Meeting