The City of Iola’s purchasing policy, which gives City Council members the discretion to favor local vendors for large-scale purchases, is once again in the limelight.
Council members asked City Administrator Matt Rehder Monday to come up with alternatives to the existing policy, which allows the city to pick local bids as long as the local vendor’s offer was within 7% of the lowest comparable bid.
The two alternatives: to lower the threshold to 3%, or to do away with the clause altogether, because the Council already has the right to accept or reject specific bids.
“It’s tough, right, the balance between are we getting abused or are we being good stewards of our money?” Councilman Nich Lohman asked. “Are we spending more than we have to vs. supporting local businesses who pay taxes, who live here? 7% does seem high.
“I don’t know what the right number is,” Lohman continued. “I do know that it seems like we very often spend more money than we need to support local vendors.”
The impetus for Monday’s discussion stemmed from a pair of recent vehicle purchases.
The first, a service truck for the Gas Department, was purchased from Twin Motors Ford after the Iola dealership was the only area vendor to submit a bid.
That purchase had to undergo a second round of bidding after the city accepted Twin Motors’ original bid of $76,022, but was notified later that the bid did not include sales tax. Again, Twin Motors was the only vendor to submit a bid during the second go-around, this time for $82,673.93.
The second vehicle, ordered at the Council’s May 27 meeting, was a patrol vehicle from Shawnee Mission Ford out of Shawnee, for $46,404. Council members eschewed the purchasing policy by picking the Shawnee Mission bid, which was $1,746 or 3.69% lower than the Twin Motors bid of $48,150.
The purchase prompted Councilman Jonathon Wells to ask for Monday’s discussion.
“I do believe 7% is too high,” Councilwoman Joelle Shallah said. “I don’t want to eliminate it completely.”
Mayor Steve French noted that favoring local vendors is more than a matter of being good neighbors.
For example, purchasing a vehicle from Kansas City still incurs extra cost in getting the vehicle to Iola.
And in the case of the Shawnee Mission Ford purchase, any major repairs will have to be done elsewhere.
Barney Barnett of Twin Motors explained that Twin Motors, which has its own service center, has to go through extra maneuvers for such things as warranty repairs, and may have to get pre-approval from Ford Motor Company for certain work.
“That’s time and money,” he told the Register afterward.
