I think i know what to do if I missed this already in the thread sorry.
But, I have had problems like this too. What you have to do is SEARCH for the contact in Gmail contacts and you will find the local contact that you put on your phone.
Then you will have to put what "Group" you want it in. It's like making sure that they are in "My Contacts". I've had this problems many times. Hopes this works.
I've had multiple contacts of the same person because of it. Makes it difficult to update sometimes
has anyone else tried this? I'm not sure how to go about trying what he suggested.