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Allentown City Council considering MBE preferences
Published on 07/07/2021

Allentown City Council is considering legislation that would allow for preferences for minority business enterprises (MBEs) in city contracting if passed. The bill, introduced by Council member Ce-Ce Gerlach, has been in draft review, and Gerlach plans to introduce it in July.

In its current state, the bill would create a 5 percent purchasing preference for MBEs for construction contracts with a total value of less than $50,000. The city would rely on state or other third-party programs to establish a business's MBE status, rather than running their own certification program. The legislation also makes provisions for attaching Minimum Participation Levels (or MPLs) for MBEs and woman-owned business enterprises (WBEs) to certain city contracts, with bidders required to demonstrate their efforts to meet the MPLs if they cannot do so.

"This is a way of institutionalizing equity and inclusion, of putting into action the values we celebrated on Juneteenth last weekend," Gerlach said during a meeting of the City Council.

Read the proposed legislation at https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20971369/allentown-minority-owned-business-preference-ordinance-merged.pdf.

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