City Council to work on 'buy-local' resolution, spending oversight

Local businesses will get special preference on some city purchases and the City Council will assume greater oversight of city spending if Ron Corbett gets his way Wednesday at his first council meeting as mayor.

The council has wrestled with a “buy-local” resolution for much of 2009 without bringing the matter to a vote.

Corbett and council member Kris Gulick, who has been working on the “buy-local” idea for some months, both Monday said other cities in Iowa, including Des Moines and Davenport, have a local-preference policy in place.

“Actually, we're behind the curve,” Corbett said.

Merrill Stanley, deputy city manager for the city of Des Moines, reported Monday that the city of Des Moines provides a 1 percent allowance on bids and a 1 percent scoring bonus on project proposals for businesses located in Des Moines that are competing to sell services and goods to the city.

The Des Moines ordinance is premised on the idea that local businesses may pay higher property taxes due to their location in Des Moines and so should be compensated for that.

Gulick said the ordinance he has submitted for review by the Cedar Rapids council will have similar language.

Gulick said he expected the council on Wednesday to discuss what the definition of local is. Corbett last week said he defined local as within Cedar Rapids. Gulick also said the council may design its ordinance to provide a larger-percentage preference for goods and services up to $25,000 and a smaller-percentage preference for larger-ticket items.

Such a local-preference statute, he and Corbett noted, would not apply to sealed competitive bids on certain matters and on other purchases governed by state or federal law.

Corbett dismissed the notion that other cities will retaliate against Cedar Rapids if it puts such a local-preference practice in place.

“People have thrown up retaliation as a red herring,” he said. “I don't buy it. Des Moines and Davenport give preferences. It's a very common practice among cities. … There's nothing to apologize about for trying to support your local businesses.”

Corbett said the City Council and the local community rallied around flood-hit small businesses helping to get them back open after the flood.

“Opening the doors is one thing, maintaining a revenue stream and a profit is another,” he said. “ … We want to send a strong signal to the small-business community that this city is going to support them.”

Corbett on Wednesday said he also will ask the council to limit the spending approved by the city manager without council approval to $25,000 and by department heads without the city manager's approval to $15,000. In December 2007, the City Council upped those limits to the existing ones, $100,000 for the city manager and $49,999 for department heads.

The city of Des Moines requires City Council approval for any spending over $25,000, the city of Des Moines' Stanley said.

Corbett said he wanted to “tighten the reins on spending” at a time when he said other cities, school districts and the state government are looking to pull back and limit spending.

He noted that the Cedar Rapids City Council must pass a resolution to increase the cost of a round of golf by $1 on city courses, but the council, he said, has no say on spending up to $100,000 on other matters.

“I'm very concerned with the spending levels we're seeing at the city right now,” Corbett said. “I think the people are asking for a more watchful eye from the City Council.”