Council here will revisit a decision to award a tender to a local company ahead of a lower bid from an out-of-town company.
In February, council elected to purchase three pickup trucks from Leslie Motors of Harriston, which submitted the low bids on two of the tenders.
Council voted in favor of purchasing all three vehicles from the local dealership, rather than accepting a slightly lower tender for a third vehicle from Arthur Chrysler.
“I think for $800 we should keep it here in town. If it was four or five thousand dollars between the three trucks I can see going outside…so my motion would be to purchase the three trucks from the local dealership,” said councillor Rick Hembly, at the Feb. 19 meeting, where his motion to purchase the trucks locally passed unopposed despite concerns raised by other members of council and the CAO.
At the March 19 meeting, councillor Dave Turton who, along with councillor Ron Faulkner, was not present at the March 19 meeting, presented a notice of intent to introduce a motion to reconsider the decision at the next meeting.
Earlier at the March 19 meeting, CAO Bill White provided council with a review the town’s 2004 purchasing bylaw. Pointing out the bylaw was nearly 10 years old, White noted, “it was probably due for a good look over anyway.”
The bylaw provides several examples of reasons for not accepting a low tender, a preference for purchasing locally is not among them.
In his report, White noted some municipalities use a “local bidder preference” as a tie-breaker, while others have a local-bid-only policy for goods under a certain dollar amount.
While tenders and request for quotations generally stipulate ‘the lowest or any tender not necessarily accepted,” White pointed out that awarding a tender locally over an “otherwise compliant” lower bidder could be considered “a very restrictive practice.
“The important thing is that the process be fair and transparent,” White said. “Generally case law seems to say that a lawyer would tell us that if you award all your tenders based on local preference, that would be considered a restrictive practice.”
