03-27-18 MBE/WBE - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Brooks stated, We had a lot of good conversation at that event. There were some larger firms that had expressed interest in mentoring small start-up Minority-owned and Women-owned businesses. I was elated from that meeting. There are a few more things to note. We would like to expand the list of certifying agencies, which I have already touched on. We need to find a natural match for businesses. Finally, I would like to talk about the disparity study. It is really in-line with making sure we are in compliance for State and Federal guidelines. We will really be taking a look at the 2015, 2016 and 2017 fiscal years. We will assess a couple of different things. We look to define what a reasonable market-place is based on where we have done business and who we have done business with. Are MBE/WBEs available and are they providing the services that the City is need of? We will be looking at that and will also,throughout this process, make sure we are being transparent and inclusive with the community. We will be conducting one (1) on one (1) focus groups and surveys. We will also be inviting vendors to participate in those surveys to get their impression of doing business in the City to see what the barriers are. We want to hear directly from them what they feel are the challenges so we can address them. We think this process will take about fifteen (15) months to complete and we are really looking forward to starting this process. We think we have identified one (1) of the best organizations in the Country to help us with this study and it will start very quickly. We think it will start in April. Ms. Ashe asked, When you gave the numbers of twenty (20) and four(4), how many of those are St. Joseph County? Ms. Brooks replied, The majority of the MBEs are from the City but we have some as far away as California. For WBEs,they are a little more spread out. So,we have some coming from California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, and the rest are from Indiana. Ms. Ashe followed up, Are the majority of those from the South Bend area? Ms. Brooks replied, I would say yes and there are a couple from Indianapolis. Mr. Gonzalez asked, Is there a way to be more involved with helping out with everything? We have two (2) businesses here and I'm not even certified. How can we be more involved and what are the challenges? I've been doing business with the Near Northwest and even that was challenging in terms of having all I need to do business. Ms. Brooks replied, I'm glad you want to help because many hands make light work. I will be more than happy to have you come in and walk through what it takes to pool this information together. As we move throughout the disparity study process, it will be completely transparent. We will have a website completely devoted to that and we will be able to see the process of the study in real time. You will be able to contact the people working on the project. So, yes, we can definitely follow up and would love your assistance. Tim Scott stated, This is good. I read the report and thought it was good. I think it would be good to see Jonathan certified because it will be people like you who are the ones able to say to other people what it takes to get certified. I run purchasing for a WBE company that caters to the auto industry. So it takes a while to grow but we have helped other vendors start up. We have had three (3) help develop. Sharing that information goes a long way. Going through the process will help 5