The background
Missouri City City Council heard a presentation regarding the findings of the city’s first-ever disparity study at a Feb. 19 meeting. The study, which was conducted by disparity study experts at Mason Tillman Associates, was sought to determine if minority- and women-owned businesses were underutilized on city projects.
The project was originally brought up in 2014, though council member Floyd Emery said it is now time to ensure the proper action is taken.
“I was here in 2014, and we thought we were making some inroads, but obviously we let things fall by the wayside,” Emery said. “I think it’s an appropriate time to take a real hard look again at the activity that we have and make sure that we are fair in providing opportunities for all contractors.”
Digging in
Eleanor Ramsey, president and CEO with Mason Tillman Associates, shared with the council data on three contract types—construction, professional services, and goods and services—and for both prime and subcontracts, meaning those contracted directly by the city and those sub-contracted by those prime vendors.
The study, using data from 2016-20 prime construction contacts, found that businesses owned by African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Caucasian females were found to be hired at a disproportionately lower rate for types of prime city contracts.
African Americans and Caucasian females were disproportionately hired for all three contract types, while Hispanic Americans weren't hired proportionally for goods and services contracts.
The takeaway
Ramsey said the study’s data showed it was vital to intervene and develop methods to improve the diversity in city contracts by implementing new bid discounts and developing new programs.
Recommendations included the establishment of a:
- Minority- and woman-owned business program
- Service-disabled veteran-owned business program
What else
The study also called for an expansion of the Small Business Enterprise Program, which notifies small businesses of upcoming area contracts that are valued at $50,000 or more and offers at least two city workshops per year, according to the report. City staff was urged to establish annual set-aside contracts for small businesses and report quarterly statistics on the contract breakdown.
Additionally, the findings call for the creation of a maintained centralized vendor database to keep track of available vendors for city projects and assign each local vendor a local identification number with business information, including contacts, owner background and certifications, according to the report. The database is to be updated every five years.
Next steps
To adopt these recommendations, the Council will need to adopt the findings of the study before drafts of the minority- and woman-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned programs can be created. After approval of the program drafts, the city will be able to move forward with the new programs.
No action was taken by council members at the meeting, but the topic is slated to be revisited in the future for adoption consideration.
