At the beginning of the year, the City of South Bend implemented a new program plan for contracting with minority and women-owned businesses. The Office of Diversity & Inclusion released its first report under the new plan Tuesday night.
The report shows that of the 171 vendors the city contracted with in the first quarter of 2021, 4.6 percent of them were certified minority or women-owned businesses (M/WBE).
The city’s disparity study, which was revised last year after a data error was discovered, shows 6 percent availability of M/WBE in the city’s geographic market area. The study includes the entire state of Indiana and Berrien County, Michigan in that area.
Diversity & Inclusion Officer Michael Patton said while he’d certainly like to see that number increase, it’s more important to have the processes in place to make bidding on city projects “fair and equitable” for M/WBE.
“The program that we’ve implemented here puts minority businesses and women businesses on the radar,” Patton said. “It causes us to have to go out and look for them and then invite them to the table for opportunities.”
While the diversity and inclusion office is required to produce an annual report on M/WBE contracting, it’s not required to produce quarterly reports like this one.
“I don’t know that a quarterly report is necessary,” Patton said. “I do think that there are ways of disseminating information such as the annual report and such as other outreach opportunities we certainly want to involve our community in.”
The local Black Lives Matter chapter called the statement “unacceptable,” and issued a statement calling for a review of the current program.
Patton said his office is working on other outreach opportunities to keep the community informed.
Contact Gemma atgdicarlo@wvpe.orgor follow her on Twitter at@gemma_dicarlo.
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