Last fiscal year Travis County spent 12.44 percent of its total expenditures on contracting work to hire minority- and women-owned businesses, according to a Nov. 27 disparity study briefing at Commissioner’s Court. Disparity studies help reveal whether an entity is hiring historically underutilized businesses, or HUBs, for contracting jobs. From Oct. 1, 2017, through Sept. 30, 2018, the county spent over $139 million on contract work. Around $17 million of that was paid to HUBs. “I’m glad to see that the HUB utilization overall is going up, but our goal needs to be a greater percentage increase,” Commissioner Brigid Shea said. In context the county has hired a similar percentage of minority- and women-owned businesses over the past three years.
Subcontracting payments may not be reported until several months after a job is completed, according to county documents. Therefore, HUB payments may increase for FY 2017-18. Of the HUB payments, prime contractors made up 84 percent of the dollars—or around $14.6 million—and subcontractors received the remaining 16 percent—or $2.7 million.
“The thing that just jumps off the page is the [women-owned] businesses,” Commissioner Gerald Daughtery said. “I mean the women are taking over the world.” Last year Travis County hired 107 HUBs—including 11 new groups—as prime contractors and 48 HUBs—including 12 new businesses—as subcontractors.
