Blog: City Blog

Mayor Kincannon Meets with Diversity Business Advisory Committee

This week, Mayor Indya Kincannon attended the Diversity Business Advisory Committee’s first meeting of the year and thanked members for providing feedback on how the City can best support and recruit businesses owned by women, minorities and service-disabled veterans — known as DBEs.

“As an employer and a purchaser, the City is intentional about how we spend taxpayers’ money,” Mayor Kincannon said.

Interim CFO Boyce Evans acknowledged that advisory committee members have asked pertinent questions and led the Purchasing Department to pursue new approaches, like creating Twitter and Facebook accounts to reach out to potential vendors.

And Purchasing staff have adapted processes based on feedback received from vendors.

For example: In 2019, several DBE mowing contractors reported that the mowing contract was too large for them to handle and prevented them from bidding on the work. So the contract has been divided into zones and, thus, could be awarded to multiple contractors.

Vendors must be registered with the City in order to respond to solicitations.

Apropos for the first meeting of the year, Pamela Cotham, Assistant Purchasing Agent in the Small Business and Diversity Outreach Office, presented an overview of the City’s DBE initiatives and activities.

In addition to hosting the annual Business Breakfast (the 12th annual breakfast is June 10 at the Jacob Building), the Purchasing team hosts a Diversity Business Expo (March 5, 2020, at Overcoming Believers Church ), manages the nominations and ceremony for the Diversity Business Awards, sends a quarterly newsletter and maintains a directory of diversity businesses.

DBAC Jan 2020

For additional information about the Diversity Business Advisory Committee, its members and its meeting schedule, visit their page on our website. And learn more about our Small Business and Diversity Outreach Office and how to qualify as a DBE on this page.

Posted by ptravis On 09 January, 2020 at 3:45 PM