Equity in Contracting Program
As part of the City of Tacoma's ongoing work to advance broader strategic goals relating to equity and accessibility, as well as economic growth, it has expanded its efforts to achieve equity in contracting and support of minority and women-owned businesses.
The Equity in Contracting Program offers access to contracting and procurement opportunities, as well as guidance and technical assistance, to historically underutilized businesses interested in providing supplies, services and public works support to the City of Tacoma.
The first phase of the City's efforts, which took place in 2019, prepared the City to make meaningful change by implementing foundational improvements that include increased technical assistance, improved compliance tracking, an increase of its contractor and supplier pool, migration to state certification lists, and working more closely with labor organizations.
The City is currently transitioning its Small Business Enterprise (SBE) list to Washington state’s Office of Minority & Women’s Business Enterprise (OMWBE) list. Washington state's OMWBE will certify businesses in these categories beginning January 1, 2020:
The next phase of the City's efforts, projected to take place from January 2020 – December 2020, will involve ongoing strategic planning with the City’s community partners and, ultimately, implementation of a range of programmatic improvements. From January 2021 – December 2023, the City anticipates analyzing its efforts to date and establishing baseline metrics for its programs, while also preparing for a new disparity study.
Background
The City authorized an extensive, year-long disparity study completed in 2018 that analyzed procurement and contracting barriers for small, disadvantaged, minority and women-owned businesses in construction, architecture and engineering, services and goods. This study determined that there exists a statistically significant under-utilization by the City of minority and women-owned businesses in these contract categories.
More information is available in this
final report.
A construction industry stakeholder committee convened by the City in 2018 - comprised of labor union leaders, private contractors, minority and women-owned businesses and residents from economically distressed communities - analyzed the use of local workforce agreements in the context of the findings and recommendations of the disparity study. Through a consensus process, the stakeholder group voted against adoption of a formal community workforce agreement or priority hire ordinance, but recommended expansion of support services offered to minority and women-owned businesses.
Questions?
Equity in Contracting Program staff is available to help.