HomeMy WebLinkAboutIPC Board Meeting Minutes 10.03.23Inclusive Procurement and Contracting Board
Meeting Minutes
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Date: October 3rd, 2023, | Time: 5:30 pm | Location: Microsoft Teams (Virtual) &
TRC 1165 Franklin Street, Suite 100, South Bend, IN 46601
Link: https://tinyurl.com/ipcboardmeeting
❖ Call to Order- The IPC Board Committee is now called to order on October 3rd,
2023, @ 5:30 p.m.
• COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Rea, Wilbur Boggs, Rachel Tomas-
Morgan, Michael Schmidt, Kara Boyles, Keana Baylis, Antonius Northern,
• COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT VIRTUALLY: Breanna Allen, Chana
Roschyk
• DIVERSITY & INCLUSION: Cynthia Simmons, Darius Lipsey, Bianca Jones
• PURCHASING:
• LEGAL: Michael Schmidt
• PUBLIC WORKS: Kara Boyles
• COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: Michael Morris, Murray Miller
❖ Approval of Minutes: October 3rd, 2023, Minutes were approved.
Notes & Action Items
I. Diversity and Inclusion:
Cynthia Simmons-Taylor – Noted ODI has the entire staff. She is still functioning as the interim
director of HRC.
Bianca Jones- Stated ODI has been reviewing what current programs are available to the
community and the goal to collaborate with community investments and engagement economic
empowerment. She stated there will be a series of vendors events, workshops, and a prime to sub
summit. Jones spoke about reintroducing the mentor to protégé program.
Darius Lipsey- Added that we are working to build a strong relationship with the primes and put
usable dollars in their pockets.
Simmons-Taylor- Stated we see the non-certified businesses that the city currently works with as
low hanging fruit which we can reach out to and gage their interest in certification and advertise
the reason why they should become certified.
Michael Schmidt- Acknowledged Breanna Allen joined virtually.
Michael Schmidt – The City is engaged in one of its biggest projects in years, which is the MLK
Dream center. The city has faced challenges receiving bids under the traditional method. On this
project the city decided to pursue a smaller construction management contract. It’s a mechanism
for public entities to bid on projects. The city did a RFP process and selected C.H. and Sons
Garmong. Garmong worked with Meticulous which is a certified minority engineering company
out of Indianapolis. The project was broken up into 21 or 22 bid packages.
BPW has a special meeting and read the results of the bids into the record. The goals for this
were set by the state. The goals are 7/5/3. Expecting more data back from Garmong in a week to
10 days. The city has been holding them to its standard and we have strong representation on this
project.
Jeff Rea- Asked was there an increase in participation on this project?
Schmidt- One package had no bids, and the city is working with Garmong to figure out how to
approach those issues. 15 bid packages had at least 2 bid packages, some had 3 or 4 and a couple
had just 1. Acknowledged Breanna had a question.
Breanna Allen- 2 questions. Has Garmong shared any of their advertisement efforts for sub-
contractors including MWBEs? Question 2- She recently became aware of the NIMBA
organization and believes it would be a potential resource for primes to find MWBEs.
Simmons-Taylor- She addressed the question regarding NIMBA. The entire ODI team attend all
NIMBA meetings and very familiar with those that are in attendance and reached out on our own
to MWBEs to make them aware of the MLK Dream Center. We are trying to come together and
consolidate our efforts.
Schmidt- To Breanna’s first question he knows that Garmong has held a couple sessions for
community outreach to try to identify some M&W firms. He was not blown away by their efforts
but they did make some efforts. They have been working with the IDOA and are experienced in
this field. We will see how successful their outreach efforts are.
Allen- Thanks both for Simmons-Taylor and Schmidt for the response. She is happy to hear we
have a relationship with NIMBA. We are all working towards the same goals just at a different
pace.
Simmons-Taylor- (to Allen) What is the name of the Capital Project she is speaking of.
Allen- Center for Community Excellence in Elkhart.
Boyles- (to Schmidt) Can you just briefly talk through the timeline and when you would expect
to have more information.
Schmitdt- They are actively putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Once they give their price,
conceptually, that lock them in. We are hoping its this month. We have a board meeting October
10th and 24th. October 24th meeting would be the final meeting date that would allow them to
break ground.
Public Works/ Procurement:
Lipsey - we had five projects that were awarded this this past month. I've had goals. There were
two projects that had to be particular goal type to be met with waivers. He directly reached out to
the PRIMES and the Subs he had gone through all the packages, reached out to the primes and
sub just to the verify the information that was there, which to justify Cynthia making the ultimate
decision to approve of waivers.
Walker Field House closed out. The MBE goals received a waiver.
Simmons-Taylor- We are doing our due diligence and confirming so we are not assuming
anything.
Lipsey- Generally speaking there were legitimate reasons for these waivers. Comparatively to
last year there has been a steady improvement on MBEs and WBEs that are being paid.
Wilbur Boggs- Highlighted a 259% growth in utilization and wanted to know if this is in the
same NAICs codes.
Schmidt- We are seeing a lot of the same industries.
Simmons Taylor- To improve the dollars spent is to look where the money is and inform people
where spending is and get them interested in those fields.
II. Purchasing:
Schmidt- August spend was 3 million that went out public works related projects and 157
thousand went to MWBE. Identifying M/W prime contractors is one of the biggest hurdles that
we have. This is a total of all spending in the City August spending.
Keanna Baylis- Inquired on the August spend showing 17 million
Jeff Rea- Clarifying salaries, insurance and debts are not included in this spending.
Schmidt- The spending did not include those items. The amount could attribute to other areas of
city spending. There should be some interesting numbers with the fusion fest. It’s a balancing act
and we want repeat engagements.
Baylis- Stated what if we did something quarterly to improve spend and maintain engagement.
She asked the question relating to seeing businesses we worked with multiple times that are not
certified. Are they who we will reach out to get certified.
Simmons-Taylor- Those are the people who we will approach with certification.
III. New Business:
VI.Old Business
o None
VII.New Business
o 100 Black Men Gala
VIII.Announcements
o None
IX.Floor Open to the Public
o None
X.Adjournment- Vote
o Motion to Adjourn vote:
o Antonious,Wilbur
o Opposed: None
Notes & Action Items
• Board member re-appointments