York County wants to hire more local companies. How would that work?
A new York County rule would give local companies a better chance to work on millions of dollars worth of public projects. But will it cost taxpayers?
York County Council is considering a local vendor preference program. The idea is to give an advantage to local contractors when the county asks for supply, service and construction bids. It would apply to bids from $50,000 to $25 million.
“This is looking at, how can we create a business environment for our community to get local businesses to participate?” said Councilman Tom Audette, who started work on the project more than a year ago.
In surveying similar counties, planners saw mixed results. Only about half of the regional counties with 150,000 or more residents have a similar program.
York County often compares itself to Greenville, Lexington and Spartanburg counties as peers in the region, and none of them have vendor preference. Charleston County adopted something in 2007 similar to what York County is considering, but repealed it three years ago.
That decision, said York County Purchasing Director Teria Sheffield, was a response to a reduction in bids received.
The vendor program is a balancing act between competition and capitalism, said Assistant County Manager Kevin Madden. “We want to maximize our participation from our local vendors but we don’t want to drive costs up by deterring competition,” he said.
How would local vendor preference work?
Some details on the new program are still to be decided. Council gave initial approval Monday, but would need a public hearing and two more votes to finalize the program. Those dates haven’t been set.
Businesses based in York County for at least a year and up-to-date on county taxes could, according to the working plan, pre-register with the county as a local bidder. That company would get advance notice of upcoming bids for county work.
If a local bidder is close to but higher than a winning non-local one, the local bidder would have an opportunity to match the winning bid. The margin for considering a local bidder would be within up to 5% of the non-local bid. The higher the project cost, the lower that percentage drops.
The program wouldn’t apply to all bids. In addition to the $50,000- to $25 million-range that would eliminate large road construction jobs, any program that uses state or federal funds could be exempt if those agencies require a low-bid setup. One example involves C-Funds, money each county gets annually from the state gas tax to improve roads.
York County spending details
Last month, the county council approved a $515 million budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. On Monday, before council gave initial approval to the local vendor program, council members unanimously approved 18 items at a combined $8.5 million.
The council approved those items with one vote, and without discussion on any of them. That’s typical of consent agenda lists that appear each time council meets.
The $8.5 million will go toward fire trucks, park construction, insurance, toxicology, furniture, road construction, elevator maintenance, inmate health services and other items.
Vendors that will receive money from the consent agenda vote are based in New York, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee and Georgia.
North Carolina companies receiving money come from Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Cornelius. South Carolina companies are based in Columbia, Spartanburg, Gaffney and Roebuck.
Only two of the 18 companies are in York County.
Council increased a construction contract by about $1,700 for traffic upgrades near the Baxter recycling center, to more than $1 million, for York-based RNF Construction. Council also voted to renew an option to buy stone base for road construction from Heidelberg Materials in McConnells. That’s a per-ton cost, but the contract value could be worth $170,000.
Of the 18 agreements, two were too low to have qualified for the proposed local vendor program. None of them would’ve been too expensive.
Taxpayer impact on local vendor program
If the vendor preference program ends up costing taxpayers, it likely wouldn’t happen right away.
The setup being considered would give a local builder the option to match the low bid, so work would be done at the same cost. What taxpayers could feel is higher costs for future work if fewer bids come in from outside York County.
As long as York County uses its own tax-generated money on its own projects, there aren’t any legal concerns with the program, said South Carolina Association of Counties spokeswoman Mary-Kathryn Craft.
“They’re in their purview to do that,” she said.
Staff and attorneys at the Association of Counties aren’t aware of another South Carolina county looking to add a local vendor preference program, Craft said. But, she said, counties are allowed to set up their own procurement policies.
The only legal issue would come if the county didn’t follow whatever rules it put in place.
The proposed program in York County isn’t designed to eliminate outside bids or contracts. The county routinely approves bids for specialized projects, often from companies across the country. The idea is to give local companies, when they’re close on cost and can meet criteria to do the work, a chance.
“It’s all about creating opportunity for our local businesses,” Audette said.
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This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
