Our city council: COUNCIL TO DECIDE WHETHER TO FAVOR LOCAL BUSINESSES FOR CONTRACTS

The Carbondale City Council will vote tonight on whether to favor Carbondale businesses within state and federal guidelines when awarding contracts.

A "yes" vote from the council will create an ordinance amendment giving a slight edge to Carbondale businesses in city purchases or contracts of more than $10,000. The ordinance as it reads now awards contracts to the "lowest responsible bidder" regardless of where the bidder's business is located. This amendment would allow the council to award the contract to a local bidder instead of to the lowest bidder if the local bid is within two percent or $2,000 of the lowest bid...

Councilwoman Sheila Simon said she believes the amendment "strikes a good balance" in that it gives an edge to Carbondale businesses -- but not too much or too expensive an edge.

Councilwoman Maggie Flannagan, though, said she felt the amendment was unnecessary.

"Fundamentally, I feel our budget process should be open," she said. "Our (Carbondale) vendors are strong enough to compete in the marketplace. When the field is level, everyone has an equal opportunity."

The local paper didn't follow up, but the campus paper, the Daily Egyptian did: City council has busy night of basketball honors, bids:

The Carbondale City Council adopted a resolution, which would give preference to local companies in regard to contract bids at their meeting Tuesday night.

The resolution, which was passed unanimously, will provide a 2-percent or $2,000 advantage to local companies when being considered as the lowest bidder. Allowing the city keep local dollars in Carbondale as well as maintain fiscal responsibility.

Maggie Flannagan wimped out. Thanks for the 2% tax, folks!

By the way, Sheila Simon is the late Paul Simon's daughter, and is backing Barack Obama for the US Senate. Is this what I should expect of Obama? He's a little too anti-trade for me, advocating "Protecting Workers Under Trade Agreements", and "Ensuring Free and Fair Trade", code expressions for protectionism. Another thing--Sheila Simon is suggesting in ads that her father would endorse him, but according to Fundrace.org (a campaign finance site not quite as extensive as opensecrets.org), Paul Simon contributed to Carol Moseley Braun's presidential campaign.

Update
That doesn't say much in favor of Paul Simon's judgement to me, although maybe he was a little more Machavellian than I give him credit for: he knew she didn't have a chance, or had to support her because she was from Illinois.