The City of Indianapolis Office of Minority and Women Business Development has proposed new rules with the goal of ensuring greater equity in City contracting. The proposal comes after the completion, in 2019, of the City's first disparity study in 25 years.
The study found that during the period of 2014-2018, the City awarded less than 15 percent of contracting dollars to minority- and woman-owned businesses (MWBEs). Some of the proposals made to remedy this and increase diverse business utilization include: mandating that a new disparity study take place every five years; setting a new veteran-owned business (VBE) participation goal at 3 percent (the MBE participation goal is15 percent, the WBE participation goal is 8 percent, and the disabled-owned business participation goal is 1 percent); explicitly setting forth standards for determining whether or not a contractor has made a good-faith effort to reach the utilization goals; ensuring subcontractors are paid within 15 days of prime contractors being paid by the City; collaborating with the Office of Veterans Affairs on the new inclusion of VBEs in the program; and setting forth procedures for crafting the City's utilization plan.
The proposals have now been sent to the full Indianapolis City-County Council for approval.
Read a copy of the proposal at https://citybase-cms-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cd6367c2f44a43e3bab8c11bf7b396c7.pdf.
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