TITLE
Recommendation to receive and file status report on Local Business Preferences and One-Stop Web Site. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
On May 10, 2005, the City Council requested a status report on strategies to make the City of Long Beach more business friendly, encourage growth, and expand opportunities for Long Beach-based businesses, with particular focus on the performance of the Local Business Preferences and One-Stop Web Site efforts (Attachment 1).
As a result of Ballot Measure U, the City Council approved an Ordinance on July 13, 2004, that established a 2 percent preference to Long Beach businesses for all City purchases of materials, equipment, supplies and non-professional services with a contract ceiling of $100,000 (Attachment 2). The local preference increases 1 percent each fiscal year until it reaches 5 percent on October 1, 2006. This local preference went into effect on Monday, August 23, 2004 and is currently at 3 percent. Neither Ballot Measure U or the City Local Preference Ordinance include a preference applied to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for professional services because factors other then price are used to determine the winning proposal.
On April 5, 2004, the Purchasing Division of the Financial Management Department implemented a central bid management system called BidsOnLine from Planetbids. BidsOnLine is a web-based bid management system, which allows potential vendors to maintain their own profile and enables them to receive automatic email notifications for selected bid opportunities based on product and service categories.
Although hosted by Planetbids, BidsOnLine is seamless with the City's web site under “Guides for Businesses - Vendor Information and Contracting Opportunities” (Attachment 3). This link on the City's web site takes you to the Purchasing Division home page (Attachment 4). Potential vendors interested in doing business with the City are able to register on the City's bidders database via BidsOnLine, v...
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