Commissioners want to explore the adding of a buy-local clause to the city’s purchasing policy.

Commissioners directed staff to explore how the city could create a policy to accept local bids for products and services even if they were not the low bid. Commissioners said they would want to require the local bids to be within a few percentage points of the low bid.

Commissioners asked staff to study the issue after receiving bids for nine police cars. Shawnee Mission Ford had the low bid at $196,896. But the bid from Lawrence’s Laird Noller Automotive was only $738 higher.

“This seems like such a small percentage to take such a large amount of business away from a local vendor,” Commissioner Sue Hack said.

Commissioners delayed taking any action on the police car bids until staff members could bring back a report on a buy-local policy.