Bernalillo County Waives Fees for Local Vendors

Bernalillo County Temporarily Waives Fees for Local Vendors
By Dan McKay
Thursday, 08 April 2010 19:08
Action being taken to make it easier for the vendors to sign up for county business

Bernalillo County is temporarily waiving fees so it will be easier for local vendors to sign up for county business.
And later this month or next, county commissioners will consider new rules requiring county departments to use the vendor list for small purchases.
“This is something we felt we could give our small local businesses: access to those contracts,” Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins said.
The changes are part of the county’s “Increment of One” project, an effort to get 500 local businesses to hire just one more employee.
In talking to local vendors in recent months, Stebbins said, one point came up repeatedly: Some vendors didn’t know how to go about getting county business.
To that end, officials are setting up meetings between local businesses and county purchasing officers, and they’re waiving the $50 fee to get on the vendor list, through June 30.
Daniel Gutierrez, county director of economic development, said the list of vendors who can be used for purchases isn’t made up entirely of local businesses. But helping small local vendors get on the list will at least give them a fair chance for county work, he said.
The county’s current rules require that large purchases be made from someone on the vendor list. The change expected to go to the commission would extend that requirement to smaller purchases, too.nty Temporarily Waives Fees for Local Vendors