When it comes to vegetables, schooling and anaesthetics, local is usually better. Not always true for the tendering of council contracts. Catching up with the news of the council contract for dogs, parking and partying, previously held by Environmental Northland, going to Amourguard, (now an American-owned corporation) I listened to
Nickie Muir: Love me tender best option
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Nickie Muir.
While it's easy to run the line that it's important to support small local firms - which it is - it is equally important to make sure that the community receives the best service for the money.
Relationships are the best of small towns and also their nemeses. Loving the community feel - loathing the special relationships that can mean that comfortable can become complacent and, if not closely regulated and held to account, corrupt.
Seeing change in contracts signals that this has not happened and that holding council contracts is not some mystic right based on long-term or long-ago relationships.
Surely that should give encouragement in the tendering process to lots of small local contractors who have never yet been able to get a look in.
It's not like Armourguard will be employing fly-in fly-out staff to the outpost of Whangers - it will still be local people being employed and sure they could go all evil and corporate and hold the council to ransom but we can give them time and a chance to do that before denouncing them.
This reviewing of council contracts should be encouraging because every local contractor will watch the new kid on the block and be only too happy to point out any shortcomings - it's how the system stays honest.
This works well in big towns but in the small ones debate and questioning in the face of tight political and business relationships can be as much fun as peeing into the wind.
Constructive conflicts are good for democracy and help to avoid conflicts of interest.