Currently, the City of Savannah’s Purchasing Ordinance (Sec. 2-4042(21)) defines a local vendor as a bidder or business meeting all of the following requirements:

(a)        The bidder or business must operate and maintain a regular place of business with a physical address within the corporate limits of the city, and

(b)        The bidder or business must at the time of bid or quotation submission, have a current city business tax certificate issued by the city, and

(c)        The business owner must serve a commercially useful function, meaning performance of real and actual service in the discharge of any contractual endeavor. The contractor/vendor must perform a distinct element of work for which the business owner has the skills, qualifications and expertise, as well as the responsibility for the actual performance, management and supervision of the work for which he/she has been contracted to perform.

The proposed changes to this definition would strengthen the requirements for a vendor to be considered local. The proposed changes to the ordinance would instead define a local vendor as a bidder or business meeting all of the following requirements:

(a)        The bidder or business must operate and maintain a headquarters, distribution point, division, office, or locally-owned franchise with a physical address within the corporate limits of the city, and

(b)        The bidder or business must, at the time of bid, proposal, or quotation submission, have a current City business tax certificate issued by the City for at least one year prior to the issuance of the requested competitive quote, bid, or proposal by the City (a post office box or temporary office shall not be considered a place of business);

(c)        As a going concern, it performs quantifiable services in the ordinary course and scope of its business with the skills, qualifications and expertise necessary to execute its contractual obligations to the City.

If approved by Council, this change would take effect on April 1, 2018 and would apply to all bidding opportunities issued after that date. 

Approval