Revised City of South Bend Disparity Study Report

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City of South Bend Disparity Study 2020 When you tell companies that you're WBE, DBE, some men ... do get a little defensive.... You have to kind of evaluate, is this gonna help me, or is this gonna give us a stigma that we need help? Sometimes you have to swallow your pride, get that project, get that purchase, and then show them that you provide the value that they're looking for. I really felt like [the City staff] didn't want me to have the job. It wasn't because I wasn't the best at what I do, because I am. It was just because they would say, "Well, you don't need that much money." Like, "You just a little black girl. You won't need that much money." Our problem is that people are trained to believe that Black folks, poor people, or minorities can't deliver.... There's a whole lot of Black people in here that wanna do something, and somebody needs to see that. These types of barriers led minorities and women to unanimous agreement that M/WBE goals remain necessary to level the playing field and equalize opportuni- ties. Aspirational or voluntary approaches were reported to be ineffective. If [prime contractors or City staff] don't have to, they're not gonna make the choice to funnel any work this way [to minority-owned firms].... It's almost as if they're saying they don't want to try to have a relationship with you. We've had people who've hired us as their diverse partner say, 'Yeah, well, I have to hire you because I need diversity.' There are Black -owned construction companies, but one reason a lot of them that I talked to went out of business, because they can't get contracts with the City. So, they can't get any big contracts, then they have to try to build their business with only small ones, and it's hard to maintain a cash flow with the other issues that you deal with. The engineers and the architects, we do exist. We're out there. We understand they're looking for capacity, reliability, capability [but we still don't get the work]. Minority and women entrepreneurs felt excluded from the networks necessary for success. Minority entrepreneurs aren't in the networks People will buy from people they like. One thing I hear is, 'I don't feel I should have to do business with you just because you're DBE, WBE, ACDBE.' It really is about service, and price, and it boils down to relationships. 0 2020 Colette Holt & Associates, All Rights Reserved. 45