Revised City of South Bend Disparity Study Report

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City of South Bend Disoarity Study 2020 Table 1-4: Disparity Ratios by Demographic Group Source. CHA analysis of City of South Bend data The disparity ratios for MBEs, White Women, and M/WBE were unexpectedly high. As a result, we explored deeper into the data in order to ensure that an abnormal pattern of M/WBE concentration did not account for these results. What we found was the following: • Hispanic firms received just 2.3 percent of the City's contract dollars. This represented six contracts out of a total of 414 contracts. These contracts were in just two NAICS codes out of 27: NAICS code 423830 - Industrial Machinery and Equipment Merchant Wholesalers and NAICS code 541511- Custom Computer Programming Services. There were three contracts in each NAICS code. These two NAICS codes accounted for just 3.0 percent of all City spending. • Asian firms received just 1.7 percent of the City's contract dollars. This represented seven con -tracts in one code: NAICS 541330 - Engineering Services. This code accounted for 8.7 percent of all City spending. • White women firms received contracts over a broader span of NAICS codes: 14. However, 60.3 percent of the contract dollars received by White women were concentrated in just three codes: NAICS code 238210 - Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors; NAICS code 238910 - Site Preparation Contractors; and NAICS code 423110 - Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers. What makes this concentration of dollars unusual is that while White women received 60.3 percent of their dollars in these three codes, these codes only accounted for 22.9 percent of all City spending. We conclude from this exploration that the disparity ratios exceeding 100 per- cent probably can be explained by the unusual pattern of concentration by His- panic, Asian, and White woman firms. We do not conclude, however, that all firms owned by Hispanics, Asians, and White women enjoy full and fair oppor- tunities to compete for the City's prime contracts and associated sub contracts on the basis of the success of a small number of businesses. 0 2020 Colette Holt & Associates, All Riahts Reserved.