Local Consideration Program

a. Businesses located within the city of Ames, Iowa, that have paid City of Ames commercial property taxes on a plant, office or store occupied by the business for the past year; or

b. Businesses located within the city of Ames, Iowa, that have paid rent for the past year to a landlord or owner who has paid City of Ames commercial property taxes for the past year on the plant, office or store occupied by the business.

Complete a “Local Consideration Business Certificate” and mail the notarized, completed certificate to: 

City of Ames – Purchasing Division

515 Clark Ave, PO Box 811

Ames, IA 50010

A list of certified businesses can be viewed on the City’s website. Please allow up to 5 days for processing of the certificate before the business is listed. Certification will remain valid for one year from the date of approval.

No. The following types of purchases are excluded:

• Purchases not bid through the Purchasing Division
• Purchases subject to the competitive bidding laws of the State of Iowa, such as public improvement projects
• Purchases subject to federal, state, or grant dollars
• Purchases from the State of Iowa or other national contracts
• Sole source purchases

In order to qualify as local business, your business must pay commercial property taxes related to the business being certified as local business. Residential property taxes paid for a home business do not qualify for the local consideration.

The Local Consideration Program shall be applied to acceptable bids and proposals greater than $10,000 from businesses within the city of Ames, Iowa, who have submitted a notarized “Local Consideration Business Certificate”.

Examples

Example A:

Local Consideration shall be given in the procurement of goods and/or services by competitive bid issued by the Purchasing Division when a bid from a certified local business exceeds the acceptable low bid by no more than 1% for bids greater than $10,000. See the bid tabulation for a 20 foot enclosed trailer.

This bid is greater than $10,000 so the local consideration is 1%. Vendor B submitted the lowest bid of $14,770.55, but is not a local business. Vendor A submitted the next lowest bid of $14,888.72, but is a certified local business.

$14,888.72 - $14,770.55 = $118.17 / 14,770.55 = .80%

The difference between the two bids is .80% which is within 1%, so the local preference applies. The bid is awarded to the local vendor, Vendor A for $14,888.72.

Example B:

Local Consideration shall be given in the procurement of goods and/or services by Request for Proposal (RFP) issued by the Purchasing Division by awarding additional points to the evaluation scores of proposals received from a certified local business as follows: 1% of all available points for proposals greater than $10,000.

This proposal is greater than $10,000 so the preference is 1%. The total available points are 1,000 (1% of 1,000 points = 10 points). The proposal received from Vendor A was given 976.7 points by the evaluation team. Vendor B received 10 additional points per the local consideration program. After the additional points were applied, Vendor A remained the highest ranked proposal. Local Consideration did not change the award in this case.

Below are the current businesses approved for Local Consideration:

10Fold Architecture
Ames Trenching & Excavating
Aspen Waste Systems
Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling
Bell Salvage
Bobcat of Ames
Bolton & Menk, Inc.
Border States Industries
Express Employment Professionals
Fox Engineering Associates, Inc.
Freedom Tire
Henkel Construction
HPC, LLC
Iowa Fence, Inc.
Knapp Tedesco Insurance
Kuberski Brothers Lawn Care
Mechanical Comfort, Inc.
Medicap Pharmacy
Nucara Pharmacy
Oxen Technology
Pillar Inc.
Sign Pro of Ames
Stecker-Harmsen, Inc.
Storey Kenworthy
United Rentals, Inc.
Waste Management, Inc. 
Woodruff Construction, LLC