Since initial adoption of Procurement Ordinance No. 09-115 no bidders/proposers have earned local preference points in the formal bid evaluation process. On February 7, 2017 the Town Council directed staff to provide recommended changes to the Local Preference section of the Town's Procurement Ordinance that would make it easier for more businesses to qualify for local preference.

The bidder/proposer seeking local preference shall have the burden of proof to demonstrate that it qualifies for preference. As proposed, the amended ordinance provides two paths to qualifying for local preference:

1. Local preference could be earned if a bidder/proposer has had a Miami Lakes place of business for at least six months prior to the issuance of the solicitation. Staff would confirm eligibility based on a current Business Tax Receipt (“BTR”) and Certificate of Use (“CU”) issued at least six (6) months prior to the issuance of the solicitation. If the proposer has multiple places of business, proposer must affirm that services shall be provided solely from the place of business located in the Town of Miami Lakes.
2. Alternatively, local preference points could be earned if at least 40% of the business owners reside in Miami Lakes. The existing process requires that businesses disclose ownership by percentage. Staff would easily be able to confirm if the criteria is met based on the ownership disclosure and the owners addresses.

The amended ordinance simplifies and clarifies language regarding when local preference may apply and how local preference points are awarded during the evaluation process. The original ordinance calculated local preference points based on three categories of awards: (1) Awards Based Solely on Price; (2) Awards Based Solely on Qualifications; and (3) Awards Based on Qualifications and Price. The third category, awards based on qualifications and price, was subject to several interpretations that made application of the provision difficult as it was unclear how points were calculated. To address this, the amended ordinance has eliminated this third category and amended the second to clarify how local preference points will be calculated. The amendment creates only two categories for awarding local preference points: (1) Awards Based Solely on Price; and (2) All Other Awards. The language in the second category has been further clarified to simplify point calculation. Instead of awarding “five points or five percent of total points, whichever is less,” the amended ordinance will award five percent of the total available points as a bonus to the local business' ranked point score received during the evaluation process. This was done to reduce ambiguity in how the points are calculated. The first category remains unchanged from the original ordinance.

In addition to the amendments to the ordinance, staff has modified solicitation documents to more clearly highlight the opportunity for local preference points and has simplified the form bidders/proposers would use to apply for local preference, please reference attachments.