The City Council for Virginia Beach recently heard the findings of a disparity study, commissioned in 2017, that analyzed the demographics of the contractors the city had performed procurement work with over the prior five years.
According to the report, "substantial" disparities existed in Virginia Beach's public procurement, especially with regard to those businesses owned by African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and white women, which were significantly underutilized.
Further findings include that while the five-year period in the study comprised $1.2 billion worth of public contracts, only $221.8 million worth went to companies owned by minorities or white women. The city has been using small-business-based measures before this, but these alone have yet closed the gap on the underutilization addressed by the study.
The study is not publicly available at the time of this article's publication, but it is anticipated to be published in November 2018.
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