10-07-19 MBE/WBE - Laserfiche WebLink

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MBE/WBE Utilization Board Meeting October 7th, 2019 5:00 p.m. Board Members Present: Takesha McClane, Breanna Allen, Dr. Janet Evelyn, Jas Alexander, Cheryl Ashe, Jeff Rea, Kara Boyles Board Members Absent: Kareemah Fowler, Bilijah Williams Others Present: Michael Schmidt,Christina Brooks,Karen White,Tim Scott Councilmember Karen White called the MBE/WBE Utilization Board meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. and explained the board membership as well as the need to elect officers. Boardmember Takesha McClane stated, The community meeting was probably over some folks' heads in teuns of the terminology. It seemed like a smokescreen. They didn't really have confidence that anything was going to move forward after the study. Those were the two (2)main concerns I gathered from folks that were there. Boardmember Jeff Rea, stated, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of steps the City has already taken, realizing that we're not there yet. I was encouraged by the plan and that we didn't have to go from zero (0) to one hundred (100), but we can build on some of the things we already have in place and set some realistic goals. I feel like we've come a long way from when we first (1st) created this, but we have a long way to go, too. Boardmember Breanna Allen stated, I thought it was commendable that these efforts even took place in the City around minority women and business awareness on what needs to happen to support that group. It was a good study to speak to the challenges that we have coming up. I would be interested to learn what framework would be established out of this study to support those businesses who have those concerns, like what the next steps are. Also, what is the capacity going to look like to be able to support something like that? And, what does the funding structure look like? Are there processes for the City? Do funds need to be reallocated? Boardmember Rea stated, What I've wrestled with is what the City spends in contracting. I think by the time you take paving and some of those sorts of things, that's a huge chunk of that. And for paving, there are like two (2) contractors that do that in the entire world. So, I liked that this study looked at capacity,too.Because it may not be realistic on paving,but her suggestions were perhaps to break these jobs up into smaller amounts to give greater opportunities. Dr. Kara Boyles, City Engineer for the City of South Bend with offices located on the 13th floor of the County-City Building, asked, In the presentation, did she talk about the geographic marketplace? And how was that perceived by community members? I was interested to hear what people's take on that would be. Boardmember Rea stated,What I didn't understand is that maybe there is a specific contractor that had an expertise where there is only a handful of them around or something like that. So maybe that county isn't really a competitor,but it showed up as one(1)because it is a pretty big chunk of contract related to something.