Jacksonville City Council member Rory Diamond and three other Northeast Florida elected officials will file legislation to require local government projects to use U.S.-manufactured goods and materials.
Diamond’s proposed policy change to “create a domestic preference” for city procurement that spends public dollars will be introduced in tandem with similar initiatives by three Northeast Florida county commissioners.
St. Johns County District 4 Commissioner Jeremiah Blocker, Nassau County District 5 Commissioner Justin Taylor and Clay County District 4 Commissioner Gavin Rollins are supporting similar initiatives.
All four lawmakers are Republican.
Diamond announced the “My Town Buys American” bill May 6 in a virtual news conference.
Diamond said the buying power of the four Northeast Florida counties’ combined $4 billion annual budgets, and U.S. local governments roughly $2 trillion in spending in 2019, could increase jobs and U.S. product supply with the increased purchase of domestic materials and goods.
“Today we’ve got record levels of unemployment already, record levels of homeless, record levels of hunger, record problems in our economy. It’s all due to the coronavirus pandemic,” Diamond said.
“We’re having massive issues just helping our neighbors day-to-day,” he said.
“So would it make sense to take a huge amount of money that we’re spending in local government … and spend as much of it as humanly possible in America.”
The policy will be tailored to comply with state and federal procurement regulations and policies under the U.S. Buy American Act of 1933 and executive orders from President Donald Trump that reinforce the federal government’s intent to enforce domestic preferences in government contracts, Diamond said.
A draft of Ordinance 2020-0238 states that products sold to the city must have 51% of its components produced and assembled in the U.S. to qualify for the procurement preference.
The ordinance exempts purchases or contracts with an estimated cost of $10,000 or less, as well as professional service; bids for construction or renovation of public facilities that use federal dollars; and purchases for legal services.
The bill leaves vendor and product eligibility to the city’s Chief of Procurement Division. The buy American preference can be waived under the bill by the procurement chief with approval from the city’s Chief Financial Officer.
Diamond said it’s not “rational” for the city to secure all products and services following the domestic preference guidelines.
“What is rational is if you have two similar products, one’s made in America and one’s made in China, you should buy the American,” said Diamond, who represents the Beaches district.
The bill allows the city to pay up to 5% more for a U.S.-produced product over a similar imported good.
According to Diamond, officials in the city Office of General Counsel told him the bill will work with the city’s procurement policy.
The District 13 Council member said he also will work with Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration to ensure the initiative is feasible.
Diamond said he will file the bill May 6.
The Nassau, Clay and St. Johns counties commissioners said in prepared statements May 6 that they will introduce similar legislation to their respective governments soon.
“We must support American jobs,” Rollins said. “I will also push for a ban on the purchase of sensitive technology built by the Chinese Communist Party.”
Taylor said he’s working with the Nassau County Attorney’s Office to review the proposal.
