Nevada County businesses, or businesses wishing to provide products manufactured in Nevada County, may receive a preference in the bidding process.

The following text was taken directly from County Administrative Code Section A-IV 2.10, and was correct as of October 2002. Check with the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors before taking any action from this information; recent changes may not be reflected here.

Local Preference in Purchasing

A. It shall be the policy of the County of Nevada to encourage local businesses to provide goods to the County of Nevada through the County's purchasing program. In order to encourage local businesses, the County hereby establishes a local preference for local businesses by providing a 5% local preference as to any purchase of goods or supplies pursuant to a separate contract or purchase order, for sums not exceeding $250,000. Any local business that qualifies for local preference will have its bid judged as being the lowest if the bid is within 5% of the lowest bid not qualifying for local preference. For any purchase exceeding the sum of $250,000, a qualified local business will receive a local preference in an amount equal to 5% of the first $250,000 of any bid submitted thereon. For the purpose of this Section, a vendor qualifying for local preference must meet all of the following criteria:

1. The local business shall have established a place of business within Nevada County at least 6 months prior to publication of the call for bids.

2. Where State sales tax will be paid for the purchase, the local business must possess a valid resale license from the State Franchise Tax Board evidencing the business' local address within Nevada County and that payment of the local share of the sales tax goes to either a city within Nevada County or to the County.

3. Where applicable, the local business must have paid business property taxes to Nevada County for the most recent tax year. This provision shall not apply as to businesses that were not established at that time or where
no taxes were due.

4. 50% of the people on the local payroll must reside within Nevada County.

B. As an alternative to the above, a local preference shall be given to any vendor (whether local or not) whose bid includes products which are manufactured within the County of Nevada. The local preference shall be in an amount equal to 5% of the retail value only as to the goods or products which were manufactured within Nevada County and which are included in the bid to the County. The value of the local preference shall not exceed the sum of $12,500 (calculated based upon a 5% preference for the first $250,000 of any products manufactured locally).

C. In order to qualify for the local preference authorized by this Section, the vendor seeking same shall be required to submit with its bid a statement containing relevant information which demonstrates compliance with the provisions of this Section. This statement shall be on a form provided by the County purchasing department and shall be signed under penalty of perjury. Any person, firm, corporation or entity intentionally submitting false information to the County in an
attempt to qualify for local preference shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be civilly liable to refund to the County the full amount of any preference given to
the vendor based upon such false information, together with interest thereon at the rate provided for civil judgments plus all legal expenses incurred in enforcement and collection of such refund.

(Section added by Ord. #1828, 4/13/93)