When awarding a contract to have materials printed, the District shall grant a preference to the lowest responsible and responsive vendor having a principal place of business in Florida. The preference shall be five percent (5%) if the lowest bid is submitted by a vendor whose principal place of business is located outside of Florida and if the printing can be performed in Florida at a level of quality comparable to that obtainable from the vendor submitting the lowest bid located outside of Florida.

When the District is required to make purchases of personal property through competitive solicitation and the lowest responsible and responsive bid, proposal, or reply is by a vendor whose principal place of business is in a state or political subdivision thereof which grants a preference for the purchase of such personal property to a person whose principal place of business is in such state, then the District shall award a preference to the lowest responsible and responsive vendor having a principal place of business within Florida, which preference is equal to the preference granted by the state or political subdivision thereof in which the lowest responsible and responsive vendor has its principal place of business.

In a competitive solicitation in which the lowest bid is submitted by a vendor whose principal place of business is located outside of Florida and that state does not grant a preference in competitive solicitation to vendors having a principal place of business in that state, the preference to the lowest responsible and responsive vendor having a principal place of business in this Florida shall be five percent (5%).

APPLICATION AND EXCLUSIONS

The provisions of this policy shall apply to every purchase requiring formal sealed bids and construction management subcontractor bids irrespective of funding source, except as otherwise specified by law. The provisions of this policy shall not apply to those purchases which may be exempt from the sealed bidding process and those purchases with respect to which the bid process may be waived/not required as defined in School Board policy or State Board of Education rules or applicable State statutes; purchases from contracts awarded by other city, or county governmental agencies, other school boards, community colleges, or State university system cooperative bid agreements; purchases pursuant to Requests for Proposals; purchases from any State of Florida Contract, Agreement or Pool Purchases; and purchases from General Services Administration schedules or contracts when allowed by law or rule.

It shall be the policy of the Board to afford local preference to Polk County vendors in the execution of this policy. For purposes of this provision the term "Polk County vendor" means any business having a physical location within the boundaries of Polk County at which employees are located and from which business is regularly transacted. The local preference policy shall be implemented when two (2) or more vendors submit identical bids for an item or items, the bid award will be determined using the order in the following procedure. This procedure does not preclude the possibility of splitting a bid award if the vendors agree to such a split and the split is determined to be in the best interest of the Board.

The following shall be considered, in order;

If any portion of this policy is for any reason held unconstitutional or otherwise invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such portion shall be deemed a separate, distinct, and independent provision, and such holding shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance.

F.S. 1001.43, 1010.04
F.A.C. 6A-1.091