THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 24, 1995 TAG: 9503230150
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: KAEIDOSCOPE: MINORITY CONTRACTING ORDINANCES
SOURCE: By LOUISA STRAYHORN
LENGTH: Long : 114 lines
Last week I was politely informed there would be an editorial questioning the need for a Minority Procurement Ordinance and Minority Business Council Ordinance. When I asked why the unhappiness with both edicts, the reasons given were that they questioned the need for an ordinance at all, as there was law on the books already, and that there was lack of sufficient debate by City Council and the public.
After reading ``Not enough debate'' (editorial, Beacon, March 17), I feel it is extremely important the citizens of Hampton Roads be given the opportunity to hear the facts.
The Minority Procurement Ordinance, co-sponsored by myself and Mayor Oberndorf and passed by City Council by an 8-3 vote, was created to monitor participation of minorities in Virginia Beach's procurement process.
The city of Virginia Beach spends, on average $30 million to $35 million for goods and services and an additional $35 million to $40 million for building construction each year. All of these will continue to be awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder; however, they are also subject to the federal civil-rights laws.
Over a year ago city staff and interested City Council members noted that less than 1 percent of the procurement contracts for goods and services had been awarded to minority businesses, and that there had been no minority participation as prime contractor on construction contracts.
In addition, it appeared that there was a lack of accurate information available on minority participation as subcontractors.
This was alarming, as minorities represent 20 percent of our population. It should be noted that minority participation for the '92-'92 fiscal year and '93-'94 fiscal year for goods and services included both women and small businesses. Since no prime contracts have been awarded to date, information for construction contracts represents subcontracts only, and the lone source for this information is the prime contractor, not the city.
We were disappointed to learn that the results for the first seven months of '94-'95 fiscal year indicated less than 3 percent of $23 million worth of goods and service contracts and still no prime construction contracts had been awarded to minority firms. It was obvious to the staff and myself that these figures were unreasonable given the city's goal of maximum competition for all contracts.
The subcontractor information available during that same period, indicated that three of the seven contracts that had been awarded to prime construction contractors intended to award subcontracts to minority firms. The total dollar amount, should they carry out their plans, may equal 28 percent of the $6 million awarded in seven months.
Moreover, this small sample is not a reliable report. Indeed, over the last few weeks, the percentages have changed to less than 1.5 percent. This is the ``good rec-ord'' espoused by the editorial.
It should be noted that there is no guarantee that these stated intentions will come to pass, and that the city does not control the results since the prime contractor hires the subcontractor. It is also important to note that there was also no accurate method to identify if we were in compliance with the equal-access law.
To find ways to address these problems, I met with city staff and was pleased to learn that they had been working on solutions similar to those that the mayor and I eventually proposed. The first two components of the plan were improving the database system used to track procurement data to ensure accuracy on minority participation in the future, and a minority procurement ordinance enabling us to gather more accurate data on minority participation from companies doing business with the city.
The third part is to develop a Minority Business Council to assist the city by holding educational seminars, disseminating information, gathering information on new minority businesses in Hampton Roads and providing the city with an analysis of the community's needs. Through the efforts of this unpaid council, it is anticipated that we can increase the minority participation in the proposal process. The minority advisory council is there to advise, educate and disseminate information - not make policy.
In business, all good solutions need an advocate to ensure implementation. I chose to be that advocate and was gratified that Mayor Oberndorf joined the effort. That's all there is, folks. There are no set-asides. There is no conspiracy to cheat good law-abiding businessmen and women who are not minorities of their rights; just sound business-management techniques to try to provide equal access for all businesses. Although I am not familiar with all of our nation's legislation or ordinances pertaining to equal access for all citizens, I suspect the majority deals with using similar good-management techniques to try to ensure fairness.
The definition of ``minorities'' used in our ordinance, as with most of this type of legislation, is the standard federal definition. The editorial sarcastically refers to ``encouraging jawboning'' and ``encouraging arm-twisting,'' when in fact what they are referring to is an information-gathering and awareness-improvement procedure that anyone with business savvy would institute if they weren't getting the results they wanted.
Furthermore, it clearly is aimed at fixing the process by which you ensure equal access and not at blaming individuals. The determination of what are reasonable quality-improvement goals is set by the city and monitored by the legal staff, the procurement staff and Council.
That brings us to the question of debate. What is there to debate? Should we debate the need to improve results that are unreasonable? The federal law of the land states we all should be equal-opportunity employers, and I believe the citizens of Virginia Beach want equal access. Should we debate business methods used to improve the outcomes with the public when they harm no one? Or should we do the job we were elected to do - make decisions that will benefit all the citizens of our city?
I ran for this office because I believed that my expertise in planning and good business techniques could benefit the city and all its citizens. It is my belief that we can improve our chances to ensure maximum competition for all our city procurement contracts with both these ordinances. I know the citizens of Virginia Beach want nothing less than fairness, and I am proud of the seven other members of Council who voted with me for this improvement believe the same. ILLUSTRATION: Mrs. Strayhorn was elected to City Council from the Kempsville
Borough in 1994.
by CNB