The City Council for Orlando has voted to replace the City's Minority and Women Business Enterprise Program with a new Small and Local Business Enterprise Preference Program. The move comes amid concerns that retaining the Minority and Women Business Enterprise Program could have resulted in the City losing federal funding, in light of recent executive orders.
The ordinance states that the eligibility criteria for the new Program will be "set forth in the Small and Local Business Enterprise Preference Policy and Procedure as adopted by City Council," and the Council has not yet defined or adopted the relevant the policy and procedure. The ordinance passed by the City Council states the new Program will become effective on March 1, 2026.
Orange County, which Orlando is the county seat of, similarly replaced its existing MWBE program with a race- and gender-neutral SBE program in July of 2025, due to the same concerns regarding access to federal funding. Orlando had previously ended its MWBE program in June, and is only new replacing it with the new Small and Local Business Enterprise Preference Program.
Read the ordinance passed by the City Council at https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/26363971-2025-orlando-small-and-local-business-preference-program-ordinance/.
Read more about Orange County replacing their MWBE program with an SBE program earlier this year at https://dbegoodfaith.com/item.php?item_type=news&news_id=2526.
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