As used in this article, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(a) "Affiliate" means a person or entity that directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls or is controlled by, or is under common control with, the person or entity. In determining whether persons or entities are affiliates, the City shall consider all appropriate factors, including common ownership, common management and contractual relationships. Affiliates shall be considered together in determining whether a firm is a Small Business Enterprise.
(b) "Broker" means a person or entity that fills orders by purchasing or receiving supplies from a third party supplier rather than out of existing inventory, and provides no commercially useful function other than acting as a conduit between a supplier and a customer.
(c) "Contracting Equity officer" has the meaning ascribed to this term in Section 2-92-070.
(d) "Chief Procurement Officer" or "CPO" means the Chief Procurement Officer of the City of Chicago.
(e) "Commercially useful function" means responsibility for the execution of a distinct element of the work of the contract, which is carried out by actually performing, managing and supervising the work involved, or fulfilling responsibilities as a joint venturer.
(f) "Construction contract" means a contract, purchase order or agreement (other than a lease of real property) for the construction, repair or improvement of any building, bridge, roadway, sidewalk, alley, railroad or other structure or infrastructure, awarded by any officer or agency of the City other than the City Council, and whose cost is to be paid from funds belonging to the City.
(g) "Contract specific goals" means the subcontracting goals for M.B.E. and W.B.E. participation established for a particular contract based upon the availability of M.B.E.s and W.B.E.s to perform the anticipated scopes of work of the contract, and the City's progress towards meeting the aspirational goals.
(h) "Contractor" means any person or business entity that seeks to enter into a construction contract with the City, and includes all partners, affiliates and joint ventures of such person or entity.
(i) "Department of Procurement Services" or "D.P.S." means the Department of Procurement Services of the City of Chicago.
(j) "Economically disadvantaged" means an individual whose personal net worth is less than $2,379,730.00, adjusted annually for inflation, such annual adjustment to begin January 2022, based on the Consumer Price Index – Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (Chicago All Items) published by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
(j-5) "Established business" means a business which is not a "small business enterprise" as determined according to subsection (t) of this section, or a business whose owners of 50 percent or more are persons who are not "economically disadvantaged" as determined pursuant to subsections (i) and (q) of this section.
(k) "Good faith efforts" means actions undertaken by a contractor to achieve a contract specific goal that, by their scope, intensity and appropriateness to the objective, can reasonably be expected to fulfill the program's requirements.
(l) "Joint venture" means an association of two or more persons or entities, or any combination of types of business enterprises and persons numbering two or more, proposing to perform a single for-profit business enterprise, in which each joint venture partner contributes property, capital, efforts, skill and knowledge, and in which the M.B.E. or W.B.E. is responsible for a distinct, clearly defined portion of the work of the contract and whose share in the capital contribution, control, management, risks and profits of the joint venture is equal to its ownership interest. Joint ventures must have an agreement in writing specifying the terms and conditions of the relationships between the partners and their relationship and responsibilities to the contract.
(m) "Local business enterprise" means a business entity located within the counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry or Will in the State of Illinois (the "Six County Region").
(n) "Minority" means:
(i) any individual in the following racial or ethnic groups, members of which are rebuttably presumed to be socially disadvantaged:
(A) African-Americans or Blacks, which includes persons having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa;
(B) Hispanics, which includes persons of Spanish culture with origins in Mexico, South or Central America or the Caribbean Islands, regardless of race;
(C) Asian-Americans, which includes persons whose origins are in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the islands of the Pacific or the Northern Marianas, or the Indian Subcontinent;
(D) American Indians, which includes persons having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment; and
(ii) individual members of other groups, including but not limited to Arab-Americans, found by the City to be socially disadvantaged by having suffered racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society, without regard to individual qualities, resulting in decreased opportunities to compete in Chicago area markets or to do business with the City.
(o) "Minority-owned business enterprise" or "M.B.E." means a small local business enterprise which is at least 51 percent owned by one or more economically disadvantaged minority persons, or in the case of a publicly held business, at least 51 percent of all classes of the stock of which is owned by one or more economically disadvantaged minority persons, whose management, policies, major decisions and daily business operations are independently managed and controlled by one or more economically disadvantaged minority persons.
(p) "Owned" means having all of the customary incidents of ownership, including the right of disposition, and sharing in all of the risks, responsibilities and profits commensurate with the degree of ownership.
(p-5) "Participating established business" means an established business which is eligible to participate in the City's minority- and women-owned business enterprise construction procurement program as set forth in Section 2-92-725 of this Code.
(q) "Personal net worth" means the net value of the assets of an individual after total liabilities are deducted. An individual's personal net worth does not include the individual's ownership interest in an applicant or other business that is not publicly held, or the individual's equity in any real estate and any related fixtures or furnishings. An individual's net worth also does not include the value of the individual's interest in any pension plans, Individual Retirement Accounts, 401(k) accounts, or other retirement savings or investment programs. As to assets held jointly with his or her spouse, an individual's personal net worth includes only that individual's share of such assets.
(r) "Private sector credit program" means the program provided for in Section 2-92-720 of this chapter.
(s) "Program" means the minority- and women- owned business enterprise construction procurement program established in this article.
(t) "Small business enterprise" means a business that has gross receipts, averaged over its previous seven fiscal years, that do not exceed one and half times the size standards of the U.S. Small Business Administration set forth in 13 C.F.R. Part 121, relevant to the scope(s) of work the firm seeks to perform on the City's contracts.
(u) "Small local business enterprise" means a business that is a small business enterprise and a local business enterprise.
(v) "Woman" means a person of the female gender, who is presumed to be socially disadvantaged.
(w) "Women-owned business enterprise" or "W.B.E." means a small local business enterprise which is at least 51 percent owned by one or more economically disadvantaged women, or in the case of a publicly owned business, at least 51 percent of all classes of the stock of which is owned by one or more economically disadvantaged women, whose management, policies, major decisions and daily business operations are independently managed and controlled by one or more economically disadvantaged women.
(Added Coun. J. 5-26-04, p. 24585, § 3; Amend Coun. J. 11-1-06, p. 89853, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 4-11-07, p. 102570, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 7-29-09, p. 67484, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 12-2-09, p. 78837, Art. 4, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 11-16-11, p. 13798, Art. IV, § 3; Amend Coun. J. 3-14-12, p. 22581, § 2; Amend Coun. J. 6-27-18, p. 80801, § 2; Amend Coun. J. 9-14-21, p. 35424, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 10-27-21, p. 39543, Art. III, § 2)