A draft policy giving preference to local bidders was tweaked and tabled by the Minot City Council Monday, Sept. 15. The policy is expected to be back on the council’s Oct. 6 agenda once staff prepare additional clarifying language around how local preference will work.

The policy states if a local company’s quote or bid is within 5% of the lowest responsible, nonlocal bidder, the local bidder would have an opportunity to review and adopt the nonlocal company’s bid and be awarded the project. Local bidders must bid to the same specification as required of nonlocal bidders.

A potential bidder seeking the local business preference must submit an application to the city for certification as local. To qualify, a company must meet at least two of three eligibility criteria:

– The business formed in North Dakota, and its principal and mailing addresses are located in Minot or within a 15-mile radius of Minot.

– The business has maintained a store-front, building or other structure within Minot or within a 15-mile radius of Minot for at least three years prior to application.

– The business has at least six full-time employees who regularly conducted work and business in Minot at least three years prior to application.

Council member Rob Fuller, who had advocated for drafting a local preference policy, suggested local companies get preference if their bids are within 7% of the low bid.

“It’s not a ton of money in the grand scheme of the project, but it may give that local bidder just a little bit more extra room where they can have the ability to take that work,” he said.

“I can’t support 5%. I can’t support 7%, and it’s for two reasons,” council member Lisa Olson said. “One, we haven’t had business owners come to us and request this. I would think in all of our dealings with the public that a business owner, even just one, would have called and said, ‘I think this is a good idea.’ I have not heard from those businesses. Second, I think the likelihood that we have, particularly, out-of-state-business bidding will dwindle, because if they’re going to put all the work into a bid process only to be matched by a local bidder, I think they’re going to go elsewhere and our prices will increase further.”

A motion to raise the threshold from 5% to 7% failed 3-4 with Fuller, Mike Hayes and Scott Samuelson in support and Mayor Mark Jantzer, Mike Blessum, Paul Pitner and Olson opposed.

Fuller successfully advocated for changing the definition of local to 15 miles around Minot rather than the 25 miles in the original policy draft prepared by staff. He also proposed requiring a company to have a building and operations in the city for three years rather than the six months listed in the original draft. His motions for the changes passed 4-3, with opposition from Jantzer, Olson and Pitner.

Fuller dropped his proposal to reduce the number of required employees from six to two in light of concerns of other council members.

Jantzer said he is concerned about allowing a local bidder to adopt another company’s low bid.

“There’s all kinds of trouble in this whole thing,” he said. “The more I hear about it, the more we’re talking about this, the more bureaucracy it looks like it has to get to an end – where, in reality, somebody got the low bid and somebody didn’t. That’s the way a lot of business is done. Most folks find that acceptable.”

Blessum said the local preference policy may not be perfect but it can be adjusted as needed.

“I think that we’ve got about the right set up here if we want to put this in place, and I am an advocate for it. I think that we don’t want to see our local bidders missing consistently by small amounts. If they’re out of the ball park, absolutely, they shouldn’t win that bid. But if they’re within the ball park, I’d like to see that happen,” he said.

Before giving the policy final action, the council voted to direct staff to propose clarifying language related to requirements on a local bidder in matching a nonlocal bid. The policy excludes use of local preference on state and federal bid projects and gives the city the ability to grant exceptions to the use of local preference in other instances.

The policy carries an effective date of next Jan. 1.

City agrees to settle with mobile home park

The City of Minot has reached a settlement agreement to acquire Parkview MHP property to make way for the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project.

The Minot City Council approved the agreement Monday, Sept. 15. Under the agreement, the city will pay Parkview $8.52 million. The city had initiated eminent domain, which led to negotiations resulting in a settlement agreement.

The property consists of real estate and 107 mobile homes. The agreement provides that Parkview will pay any outstanding taxes, remove the mobile homes and clean up the property in accordance with nuisance abatement order issued by the city.