The City of Asheville's City Council has voted unanimously to allow for race- and gender-conscious policies in public contracting. Previously, the City's business inclusion policy was a race- and gender-neutral one. However, the results of a recent disparity study have given the City the legal basis to enact the race- and gender-conscious policies.
The disparity study, which was completed in 2018, studied City contracting during the period of 2012 through 2017, and found that 87.2 percent of the total amount of $118 million in contract awards during that period went to firms owned by white men. The study showed findings demonstrating that minority- and woman-owned businesses (MBEs and WBEs) were underutilized relative to their availability in many categories (in all City contracts, for instance, firms owned by African-Americans received just 0.5 percent of total contract dollars during the period of the study).
Going forward, the City will now be authorized to set annual aspirational contract goals for MBEs and WBEs, in addition to contract-by-contract subcontracting goals for MBEs and WBEs. The goals will be set by taking into account the availability of such firms, as found by the disparity study. In addition, the City will now be able to maintain a directory of MBEs and WBEs, define "good faith" procedures for primes seeking out subcontractors, and coordinate with all City departments to ensure the new policies are implemented.
The new business inclusion policy is due to go into effect on January 1st, 2021.
Learn more at the City's Business Inclusion page at https://www.ashevillenc.gov/department/community-economic-development/business-inclusion/.
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