Businesses can register for opportunities with County HERE
MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County Executive Laura Curran today reminded businesses across Nassau County of a new reform in effect as of January 1st 2019 that has eliminated a $125 annual vendor registration fee. Last October, County Executive Curran signed into law an ordinance to remove the fee for vendors seeking to do business with Nassau County. Since the fee was removed on January 1st 2019, the number of vendors registered has risen from 960 on December 31st 2018 to 1,667 as of February 20th, 2018.
“Nassau is open for business – I encourage our small business owners to register for vendor opportunities with the County. We’ve eliminated an anti-competitive vendor registration fee as part our on-going efforts to make the procurement process more transparent, efficient, competitive and inclusive,” said County Executive Curran. “More registered vendors means more competition and thus better deals for the County – and more opportunities for our women and minority-owned businesses.”
The fee elimination ordinance was submitted by the County Attorney’s Office on August 28, 2018 and was passed unanimously by the Nassau County Legislature on September 26, 2018. The fee has been imposed by the county since 2014 and was mandatory for all vendors interested in viewing county procurement opportunities--even if they were never selected to participate in a county contract.
The vendor fee greatly diminished the interest of vendors in even bidding on county contracts, thereby reducing the competitiveness of county procurements. The fee was identified as a barrier to entry by small businesses, particularly Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE). By eliminating the fee, the county has spurred competition for county contracts.
The ordinance included a provision to account for lost revenue from the registration fee elimination by instituting an administrative services charge to cover contracts and purchase orders that are competitively solicited and awarded by the Commissioner of Shared Services. This cost-neutral practice is an expansion of a 2006 ordinance that charged a processing fee for personal services contracts.
The charges will start at $160.00 and be based on a progressive scale based on the value of the contract award. However, no charges will be incurred unless the contract or purchase order has a value of over $10,000. Approximately seventy percent of purchase orders are less than $10,000.