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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK available small,minority and women-owned business enterprises within the governmental agency. For us, that is the City. Research is done on that information to determine if there are disparities and then make recommendations to rectify those disparities. A disparity exists if small, minority or women-owned business firms are found to be underutilized compared to the portion of available firms in this area. She continued, What is included in the actual disparity study itself? There are a couple of things and two (2) pieces of evidence. One (1) is statistical data. For the City of South Bend, we look through three (3) years of contract and procurement data. Those years are 2015, 2016 and 2017. We were able to compile over four hundred (400) individual contract data that we handed over to our consultant. The second (2nd) type of evidence is qualitative or anecdotal evidence. That is the collection of anecdotal interviews and stories from people that have either done business with the City or are interested in doing business with the City. Another important aspect of the study itself is to review the City of South Bend's current policies regarding procurement and contracting. Finally, our consultant will actually make recommendations once the study is complete. She went on, Who is actually leading this effort on an external basis? We have selected Colette Holt and Associates. She has over twenty-five(25)years of experience in the field of minority and women business enterprise programs in local,municipal, state and federal programs. We felt very confident that she would do a fine job. She has been called as an expert witness for disparity study cases all across the country and the programs she has put together over the last twenty-five (25) years have successfully withstood any court challenge. She continued, The timeline progress here, for us here at the City of South Bend, started back in Quarter One (1) of 2018 where we actually contracted with Colette Holt and Associates. We had an internal meeting with our internal stakeholders in April. We then had a public meeting in June 2018. In that June meeting, Colette Holt was here on site at the Charles Martin Center. We announced at that time the first (1st) business owner interview meeting that was scheduled in November. Since then, we've had two (2) business owner interview sessions. Typically with disparity studies, consultants will do one(1)but Colette has graciously offered to do three(3)here with the City of South Bend to make sure everyone feels that they have a fair opportunity to share their stories about contracting and procurement with the City. We've been through two(2)of those already. One (1) took place, again as I said, in November. A second (2nd) was an online session that we were notified took place December 5th. Finally, we will have a third (3'1) business owner interview session that, because of scheduling and her being a very busy woman, won't be until March 2019. You might ask if that may set our timeline back but no, it will not. She has promised that she will be able to deliver the disparity study on time even though we'll have that final business owner interview in March 2019. She went on, You'll notice that the green circles(referencing a slide in the presentation)mean that those events have been completed. There are two (2) remaining. The blue and that is the final business owner meeting and then finally the disparity study itself to be delivered. So this is what is next. It is scheduled for March 18th,2019. We are working together and would like to make sure we are pulling in all of our community stakeholders to ensure that we have it at a location that is both amenable to the people in the community and at a time when business owners can actually be there. That information is still to be determined and I look forward to hearing from people in the community and stakeholders to help make sure we have the right time and location for that final business owner interview. How can people in the community stay up to date on the progress? The EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 11 D574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 3