HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 10216 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 10216
To the Mayor and Members of the City Council January 15, 2019
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SUBJECT: MINORITY AND WOMEN BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AVAILABILITY
rrn AND DISPARITY STUDY
The City of Fort Worth periodically undertakes an Availability and Disparity Study (A&D Study) to
validate and serve as the legal basis of the Business Diversity Enterprise (BDE) Ordinance.
These studies are performed every five to seven years through a third-party consulting firm. The
current BDE Ordinance was approved in December 2011 and became effective June 2012.
The purpose of the A&D Study is to evaluate the City's procurement and contracting practices,
particularly their use of Minority-owned Business Enterprises (MBEs) and Woman-owned
Business Enterprises (WBEs) and how well the City's current program promotes equal
opportunity for bidding, diversification of its vendor base, and equitable distribution of purchases.
The City's A&D Study will focus on construction, professional services (architecture and
engineering), professional services (non-A&E), and goods and services, and will review the
award of prime contracts and subcontracts during the study periods.
The Legal basis for an M/WBE Goals-Based Program as reflected in the City's BDE Ordinance is:
■ State and local governments are required to validate a statistically significant
underutilization of minority and women-owned businesses before establishing an M/WBE
Goals-Based Program
■ The courts consider A&D Studies to be an acceptable method to validate underutilization
and identify remedies for discriminative practices
The DFW International Airport Board (DFW) issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) and awarded
a contract for similar professional services to Colette Holt and Associates (CHA) on February 1 ,
2018. The Office of Business Diversity Staff recommends hiring the same firm for the City's A&D
Study due to CHA's success in the DFW's selection process, its marketplace which consists of
fourteen counties of which six of those counties are within the City's market area, and its recent
experience with the Fort Worth area marketplace.
The A&D Study process will take 12 months from the date of the study initiation meeting.
The Scope of Work:
CHA will engage the public through numerous channels. At the beginning of the study process:
■ CHA will develop and maintain a public study website to provide information in an
accessible and easy to understand format to keep the community, and all interested
parties informed on the elements of the disparity study and how the community can
participate in the Public Meeting and Business/ Stakeholder Owner Interview sessions.
ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS
INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 10216
To the Mayor and Members of the City Council January 15, 2019
Page 2 of 2
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SUBJECT: MINORITY AND WOMEN BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AVAILABILITY
rrn AND DISPARITY STUDY
■ To ensure that there is as much public participation as possible, CHA will engage Nervi'
Strategic Solutions, LLC (MBE-AA) as a local sub-consultant. Nervi' has previously served
as the subconsultant to CHA on the Dallas County and Parkland Health and Hospital
System Disparity Studies.
■ CHA and Nervi' will perform extensive outreach to invite firms, industry trade groups,
community organizations, and other interested stakeholders and business owners to the
public meetings and the appropriate interview session.
■ Analysis of the City's contract data will involve three overall steps. First, CHA will
determine the City's market area based on its utilization of M/WBEs. Next, based on where
the City purchases goods and services, CHA will determine its utilization of M/WBEs in
that geographic market. Third, CHA will develop the estimates of minority- and woman-
owned firms that are available in the City's market area.
■ Using the M/WBE utilization estimates and the M/WBE weighted availability estimates,
CHA will calculate a disparity index. CHA will produce statistical comparisons of M/WBE
availability with the utilization of M/WBEs on City contracts for the study period; produce
disparity indices for all race, sex, and detailed industry categories; and apply statistical
significance tests, to the extent permitted by the sample sizes. These results will shed light
on the extent to which identified disparities may be attributable to race and gender.
Separate disparity indices will be calculated for:
o All detailed industry groups combined by detailed race and sex.
o Detailed race and sex by detailed industry groups.
■ CHA will conduct a thorough review of the City's current M/WBE efforts. CHA will examine
relevant documents and interview the City's staff and business owners about outreach
efforts and how the City can assist M/WBEs.
■ CHA will present the results of the research to the City in a Draft Report, inclusive of all
aspects of the study, and a Final Report. The Report will include recommendations to
remedy the effects of any discrimination identified and to reduce or eliminate any other
marketplace barriers that adversely affect the contract participation of such small, minority
and women-owned businesses, including the extent to which the effects of discrimination
are addressed through race and gender-neutral measures.
The Purchasing Department will issue an M&C for Council approval on January 29, 2019.
If you have any questions concerning this information, please contact Robert Sturns, Director of
Economic Development at (817) 392-2663.
David Cooke
City Manager
ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS