CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- A Bradley County Commission committee is searching for ways to give local contractors an incentive to bid for county business while not driving away outside firms.

The Building and Lands Committee is studying examples from Florida and California, where local governments give a slight preference to local bidders.

Panel chairman Jim Smith said the committee may pull items from each of several examples passed along by Commission Chairman Louie Alford.

Mr. Smith asked the members to talk to community businesses about the idea before the committee meets again Monday.

Later the committee may form an ad hoc study group involving some local business representatives and county officials, he said.

"We are not in a hurry," Mr. Smith said. "If we do this, we want to do it right."

Commissioner Ben Atchley said the committee "would just be giving local people an incentive, even if their bid is a touch higher."

The committee members also are also waiting to see how the Tennessee attorney general reacts to a similar request from Chattanooga.

In September, the Chattanooga City Council asked for an attorney general's opinion on whether the city can offer incentives to contractors who hire mostly local workers. The proposal to spur local hiring was suggested in July by the Construction Trades Council and the Chattanooga Area Labor Council.

The Associated General Contractors of East Tennessee opposes the Chattanooga proposal.

The Bradley committee members say they also may ask for an attorney general's opinion, since state laws and procedures sometimes are different for county and city governments.

State law neither prohibits nor expressly allows local preferences, Mr. Alford said. But the state allows a preference for state projects, he said.

Committee members were especially interested in a Polk County, Fla., ordinance that allows an incentive for all types of contracts, not just construction.

The ordinance states that if an outside bid is within 3 percent of a Polk County provider's bid, the local vendor will have an opportunity to match that bid and win the contract.

Committee members noted the county schools contracts with an out-of-state company for school trash pickup when another multistate company is headquartered in Cleveland and offered a slightly higher bid.

Favoring local bidders became an issue with city and county governments during the summer as their school boards sought bids for construction managers.

County schools officials earlier this month gave a local company the construction manager's contract for a fine arts building at Bradley Central High School. A Knoxville firm recently reported its subcontracts on a new county elementary school are more than 65 percent local.

City Council members last month chided the Cleveland school board for not inviting local and regional contractors to bid on a construction management contract for Cleveland High School's science wing.

The list was expanded, and bids are to be opened in late November.