Cedar Rapids' neighbors mad over 'buy local;' want deal to extend to all of Linn County

MARION - Stan Pfoff seems a genuinely good-natured guy, an observation supported by the backward spelling of his business name, Pfoff Electric, on the front of his trucks.

In the rear view, though, the letters straighten up, the name is clear and you know exactly who is behind you, looking over your shoulder.

Cedar Rapids City Hall knows Pfoff is back there now, too.

Pfoff is a case in point, a metro-area business that has lost out on work with the city of Cedar Rapids because of the city's 6-month-old, buy-local policy.

On contracts of $25,000 or less, a company with a presence in Cedar Rapids can submit a bid 10 percent higher than a company outside of Cedar Rapids and still win the bid. (The advantage is 5 percent on contracts up to $200,000, and 1 percent on those over that amount, but does not apply to many contracts with state or federal bidding rules or funding).

The bid numbers on an electrical project at the city's flood-damaged former downtown library tell Pfoff's story of displeasure: Pfoff Electric Inc., Marion, $8,078; Paulson Electric Co. Inc., Cedar Rapids, $8,250; Delancey Electric, Anamosa, $8,600; Justice Electric Co., Cedar Rapids, $8,730. Four others had higher bids.

Paulson was awarded the bid on Thursday, and it would have won it, too, even if its bid had been as high was $8,885, or 10 percent higher than Stan Pfoff's bid.

Pfoff, a longtime electrician who opened his own metro-area business five years ago in Marion, points out how the Cedar Rapids City Council has been rattling on and on for years about the value of regional cooperation and supporting the “Corridor” between the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids metro areas.

“I thought Marion, Hiawatha, Robins were part of the ‘Corridor,'” Pfoff says.

As big an irritant is for him is the fact that his company, like other metro area firms, came to the call when the city of Cedar Rapids desperately needed contractors to help provide emergency services in the first weeks and months after the June 2008 flood. Pfoff says he and his electricians worked 70 days straight, dawn to dark.

“We were there,” says Pfoff.

“Buy-local” was one of the ideas that now-Mayor Ron Corbett and council members Don Karr and Chuck Swore campaigned on in 2009, and it was one of the very first items they and the new City Council took on in January. The council had talked about a buy-local preference for a year or more, but the new council put it in place.

Corbett said Thursday that the central intent of the law is help local businesses in Cedar Rapids at this point in time – as the city recovers from the 2008 flood. He says he knows there is “chatter” in the metro area for the city to expand its buy-local statute to all of Linn County.

Just this week, the council's championing of buy local was on display as strongly as ever in a confrontation with the city's own professional staff over the award of a professional contract for the environmental assessments of 101 flood-damaged commercial properties. The professional-services contract, which had 20 bidders and four bid finalists and was scored on several factors not just cost, is funded by the federal Community Development Block Grant Program and so is not allowed to be covered by the city's buy-local policy.

Nonetheless, the council voted, 8-0, to award the contract to Howard R. Green Co., with headquarters in Cedar Rapids, rather than to the firm recommended by the city's professional staff, Braun Intertec Corp. Braun, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, has had an office in Cedar Rapids for two years, and now has 15 employees in it.

Council member Monica Vernon was especially critical of the city staff for not taking into account the “spirit” of the council's belief in “buy local” even on contracts in which the city's new buy-local law doesn't apply. She said firms with headquarters in Cedar Rapids, like Howard R. Green, keep more money in Cedar Rapids than those with headquarters elsewhere, like Braun.

“Let's not kid ourselves about this,” Vernon said. “We really have to think about where these dollars flow.”

Council member Kris Gulick gently reminded Vernon that Quaker Co. and Intermec Corp., to name two, are good Cedar Rapids corporate citizens with headquarters elsewhere.

Ed Bertch, an associate partner at Braun Intertec's Cedar Rapids office and a Cedar Rapids native, wondered on Thursday if Howard R. Green Co. makes an argument like Vernon's at its regional office in Kansas City.

“The idea I found disturbing is that (if we had won the contract) the money goes up to this magic box in Minneapolis and nothing gets spent in Cedar Rapids,” Bertch says. “We have 15 staff members who live here, work here and buy homes here.

“We scored highest on a fair point system that was developed by them (the city's professional staff). We're a little disappointed. But we're not going anywhere.”

Jill Ackerman, president of the Marion Chamber of Commerce, says the Marion Chamber supports the city of Cedar Rapids' buy-local resolution, but only if it is expanded to include all of Linn County.

“ … As written today, the Cedar Rapids buy-local resolution is counterproductive to the regionalism efforts within our communities and it hinders the economic well-being of our members as well,” she says.

Ackerman notes that the city of Marion, which has had in place its own buy-local preference with a 1-percent advantage on smaller contracts, has now expanded it to include all of Linn County.

Tim Wentz, who owns Truck Builders in Marion, says his business has been doing work on Cedar Rapids buses, fire trucks and other equipment for years until this year, when Cedar Rapids stopped calling.

“What's wrong with this picture?” asks Wentz, who now is buying his parts outside of Cedar Rapids to make a point. “I don't want to sound like a kid in the sandbox who isn't getting treating fair. But why penalize us?”

Pfoff Electric's Stan Pfoff, who lives in unincorporated Linn County, says he was having dinner last Friday evening at the Vernon Inn in Cedar Rapids, spending his money, he points out, at a Cedar Rapids business. A few tables away, Mayor Corbett was having dinner.

Pfoff says he was tempted to introduce himself and give the mayor a little earful to mix with his entree.

“I don't want to be aggressive on this, but I think it needs to be changed,” Pfoff says. “I don't think they realize what they've done.”