At last, Yuma has preference for Yuma firms

The city of Yuma officially now has a bidding preference policy for city businesses, although there continues to be some controversy over how it will be applied.

Efforts to establish the local preference for certain types of work, materials and services started several years ago to help Yuma businesses struggling to survive as a result of the recession. A change to the Yuma City Charter to allow the preference was approved by voters in 2010 and cleared by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer last fall.

The final step was a city ordinance to implement the preference — and that was finally approved by the council last week after a couple of months of delay. The sticking point was whether the 5 percent preference should be available only for businesses within Yuma city limits or also include those outside city limits but located within Yuma County.

A longtime advocate of the policy — Yuma County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ken Rosevear — urged council members to look at widening the scope of the policy so city and county businesses aren't “pitted against each other.”

In the end, the city council seemed to agree with Councilman Paul Johnson that there had been enough delay and discussion and went forward with the preference for only those within city limits.

The door may not be closed, however. Johnson noted “we can change it later.”

The important thing is to move forward. There seems to be a growing consensus that the economy is on the road to recovery. This is the time when Yuma businesses that have hung on through tough times need a hand up. The stated intention of the preference policy from the beginning was to help those particular businesses.

As the preference program is implemented, we will have a better idea of how effective it is and whether it makes sense to reconsider expanding it to other business owners who contribute to the local economy but are not located within Yuma city boundaries.