Bye-bye to the buy-local program?

The city's 7-month-old buy-local program may be headed to the shop for a tuneup.

The Procurement Committee will review the program's status today. Council member Chuck Swore, who chairs the committee, said members likely will look at three options: limiting the buy-local incentive to flood-impacted businesses; expanding the incentive to all businesses in Linn County; or scrapping the program entirely.

When the council took up the matter back in January, Swore said he initially wanted the buy-local program to help flood-impacted businesses. The council, though, put a buy-local program in place for any business in Cedar Rapids.

“Where that came from, I'm not entirely sure,” Swore said.

Immediate protests came from businesses in the metro area, from the city of Marion and from the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, whose members the buy-local policy was intended to help. The chamber, though, has members from the metro area, not just Cedar Rapids.

“Hopefully, we can get it adjusted where everybody feels comfortable with it,” Swore said. “Right now, it's probably causing more confusion than it is really having an impact, and I think some of the report we will be getting (from city staff) will show that.”

Stan Pfoff, owner of Pfoff Electric Inc. in Marion, is pleased that the Cedar Rapids council is going to revisit its buy-local policy. The council ought to expand it to all of Linn County if they're going to keep it, he said.

Pfoff was low bidder on a city job at the former library earlier this summer but lost out to a Cedar Rapids electrical contractor because of the buy-local policy. At the time, he noted that his Marion firm had worked 70 days, from dawn to dark, helping flood victims in Cedar Rapids after the June 2008 flood. The memory at Cedar Rapids City Hall was short, he said.

Pfoff has received bid documents from Cedar Rapids for a job at the Paramount Theatre, and he said he will be watching to see what might happen to the buy-local policy. Bids on the Paramount job must be submitted by Aug. 26. Maybe something will change by then, he said.

The city's buy-local policy applies only to certain purchases and contracts, and it does not apply generally to larger projects in which federal or state funds or bidding rules are involved.

For applicable projects or purchases, a Cedar Rapids firm can win city business with a bid

10 percent higher than a non-local firm on bids less than $25,000; with a bid 5 percent higher on a bid between $25,000 and $199,999; and with a bid

1 percent higher on a bid of $200,000 or more.