PORT ANGELES — The City Council has passed a resolution that allows staff to spend up to 5 percent more on products and services that cost up to $7,500 within the city and its eastern urban growth area, even if those are cheaper outside of those boundaries.
The council approved the resolution at its regular meeting last week.
“This is a good thing for the city,” Mayor Cherie Kidd said.
“This is supporting existing businesses. This is supporting our entire community.”
Mike Edwards, a volunteer with the Port Angeles City Council-sponsored advisory PA Forward Committee, is chairman of the group’s choose-local committee.
He has been publicizing local-focus efforts for about 18 months.
The committee has distributed about 500 gift bags to businesses filled with locally produced products, he said, holding up one of the bags
as the addressed the council members before they passed the resolution.
“Some of the feedback we’ve received has to do with the city’s past policies toward purchasing the things they need locally vs. online or outside the city or somewhere else,” Edwards said.
That’s made it difficult to promote the choose-local concept, he said.
The resolution gives local businesses a “5 percent advantage” before city staff go outside the local area, Edwards said.
“In this area, with the tax issues we’ve got, I think it is truly important to try to encourage as much additional purchasing locally as possible,” he said.
“It’s time for the city to kind of step up and lead, if you will, in this.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.