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Bryce Jacobson, Business Beat

Bryce Jacobson's "Business Beat" appears Mondays in the Craig Daily Press. E-mail him at bjacobson@craigdailypress.com

Each year, there are several employees, business managers and/or owners who visit me at the Craig Daily Press throughout the year to inform me of a government entity that has decided to contract with a non-local business rather than a local business.

Recently, the city of Craig and Moffat County spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 with a Hayden business to cater their Christmas parties.

In the case of the county, elected officials decided to go with the only bid they received. In the case of the city, they have an employee committee that handles all those arrangements and made that decision after receiving more than one bid.

My opinion, which I have stated many times without wavering, is this: Shop local whenever you possibly can. That stance, which I believe allows all of our community to prosper, is not limited to just governments, but every resident and consumer, as well.

As I discussed this situation with several of our elected officials and the city manager last week, it was clear that one thing that needs to be defined is what constitutes local.

For the city of Craig, I define local as within city limits, and similarly for Moffat County, I consider local to be a business conducted inside Moffat County’s limits.

I also have to be fair to our elected officials and say that I also expect them to act responsibly with taxpayer’s money.

The solution to this ongoing problem is twofold.

First, you should talk to your elected officials. Every taxpayer in this city and county needs to be in contact with our elected officials about this issue, and every issue, for that matter, so that you can be informed when it comes time to vote.

That being said, I have witnessed a couple of occasions where many citizens spoke to these elected officials with a unified voice and the elected officials simply voted in the direction opposite of what their constituents had told them.

To that, I say this is not a monarchy government; rather, it is a representative government, so your second option is to vote those officials you don’t think are voting the way you would vote, out of office and vote people that will in to office.