Tonight’s city commission meeting has given me a headache
and my Founders Porter has not helped.
You look to the city to make logical decisions for all our
citizens. I get that. When we make logical, sound decisions about
things you understand that is a good thing.
It gives you the confidence that on the really complicated stuff we will
act in the same logical way, right? Well,
I think that’s the way it works. And
generally, I think that is what we do as commissioners and department
heads. Now, this is where the headache
comes in. Tonight I proposed that the
city allow the local Ford dealer to bid on city police cars instead of buying
from the state approved dealer in Frankfort.
You know, buy local, and all the benefits that will follow to our fair
city. What seemed to be a logical idea,
at least in my mind, sure got everybody stirred up. Me included.
I’m not saying the city should award the bid automatically
to the local Ford dealer, but give the
guy the chance to bid. I really don’t
see a downside.
Am I missing something here?
Please email me with your thoughts, but don’t forget we have
a mayor and three other members to email also.
Allan
allanrhodesjr@gmail.com
I agree Allan, we should buy local.. perhaps the other dealerships here locally should be able to bid as well. Appreciate your efforts.
ReplyDeleteBest, Jeanie Embry/ Paducah resident
Sounds like a good idea to me.
ReplyDeleteI am a bit shocked to find out they were NOT buying police cars locally. I thought they always used to? That is a LOT of taxpayers dollars that should be staying in Paducah..
ReplyDeleteThe local guy's bid may not be quite as low as the out of town guy's, but they have to consider the license fees and taxes those local business put toward the city. Also, it's not just the buying of patrol cars the city should look locally for. It's very hard to compete with Amazon and other online retailers for the supplies the city buys also
ReplyDeleteI know as a small business owner, I would like to be given the same opportunities as the large business.
ReplyDeleteI guess i commented on the wrong one. Like i said this is the first time i have ever read a blog. Im still figuring out how it works.
ReplyDeleteWe need more business men in office and less politicians!! Mr. Rhodes makes a lot of great points. Keep it up, please..
ReplyDeleteI question a lot of things the city government does. When building or thinking about it, they hire consultants and others that are necessary before proceeding from out of town. I mean, who else would know what's best for Paducah than our own people. The city commission has been a rubber stamp for the mayor for the last 8 years or more. I am thankful you have enough backbone (education) to question these ridiculous expenditures they make.
ReplyDeleteThanks Allan for making sure business owners in the city/county get a chance. Thank you for caring about our neighborhoods and listening to the residents. I appreciate that you address those things you believe you can make a differnce in.
ReplyDeleteThis buy local issue has been brought to the commissioners attention in the past. It really needs to be implemented. You are spot on. Stand firm.
ReplyDeleteFrom my perspective the devil's in the details. This particular issue has aggravated me for some time. Buying local is a great theory but the side of the counter you're standing on has to be considered. On the local business owner's side buying local is great. He/she benefits as well as the beneficiary of the taxes paid from the sale. But on the customer's side of the counter buying isn't always that great. Normally, I would not pay a premium just to buy something local and I would hope our elected leaders wouldn't either. The bidding process is designed to obtain the lowest price. If the rules were revised to allow a local business to match that low bid then great. Buying local solely for the sake of buying local is wrong.
ReplyDeleteAllen,
ReplyDeleteAnother example of the city and county government not "walking the talk" when it comes to supporting local business involves the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant proposals for future use. The Mayor and Judge Excecutive along with the PED are publically endorsing an outside company in the Department of Energy's request for offer to transfer the depleted uranium tails and use of the plant site when there is a local company, Advanced Process Technology System (APTS) proposing to operate the plant in the near term and save at least 700 existing worker jobs. APTS is a 50% partner with International Isotopes, Inc. that has proposed to lease and operate the plant with a plan to maintain 700+ jobs and save the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars per year by using the existing facilities for 15+ years and making the transition in mid-2014. The company being endorsed by the local governments and PED does not intend to use the existing process, has not proven their new technology to be commercially feasible (and it has never been operated beyond test scale anywhere in the world), would require a long licensing process before any construction of a new facility to build on the site. Also it is likely it would take years before any commercial scale facility of that outside company could be operating with significant employment levels even if the process is proven to be technically and economically feasible on a commercial scale. The company being endorsed by the group is publically and openly committed to build their first commercial plant at another location in another state. So much for supporting a local business who already pays business license, payroll tax and property tax and has its office less than 5 blocks from the Commerce Center and just across the street from City Hall. The local government and economic development groups should be focused on keeping the employees jobs at the plant now, not later and they should be supporting any and all of the companies that have made proposals to use the plant and save the jobs after DOE makes a decision to select the best offer. It is not the local leaders or economic development groups responsiblilty (and fringes on being unethical in a federal offer bid process) to choose and endorse one of the proposals since they know very little about all the proposals. Leave that to the DOE team that has all the proposals information to make the selection, then the local governments can support the DOE selected company.