(a) Eligibility. To be eligible for local business preference points, a business must affirm and provide supporting documentation to the Director to show that it is a local business as defined in Section 11B-93. The Director may investigate and verify the information provided on the application, as necessary, and must certify a business as a local business for the purposes of this Article.
(b) Certification. Preference points must be applied only to a business:
(1) that has a valid local business certification when the business submits a bid or proposal; or
(2) who has applied for local business certification before the time to submit a bid or proposal has passed.
(c) Notice. The Director must publicly notify businesses of prospective procurement opportunities.
(d) Competitive sealed bids. The Director must adjust the bid of a Local Business who submits a bid in response to an Invitation for Bid issued under Section 11B-9:
(1) by reducing the bid price(s) by a factor of 10%, but not to exceed $200,000, for the purposes of evaluation and award only; or
(2) if a Local Business is eligible for a reciprocal preference pursuant to Section 11B-9(j), the bid of the Local Business must be adjusted by that reciprocal preference if it exceeds the 10% preference factor.
The Local Business preference points authorized under this Article must not be combined with reciprocal preference points authorized under Section 11B-9(j).
(e) Competitive sealed proposals. The Director must include an evaluation factor awarding additional points for a proposal from a Local Business worth 10% of the total available points in a Request for Proposals issued under Section 11B-10.
(f) Waiver. The Director may waive a bid or proposal preference under this Section in a solicitation if the Director finds that a preference would result in the loss to the County of Federal or State funds. (2020 L.M.C., ch. 19, § 1.)