173.07 CONTRACTING GOALS.

   (a)   Goals shall be established for MBE and DBE participation in contracts awarded by the City, the following three areas:

      MBE participation in contracts funded by HUD;

      DBE participation in contracts funded by DOT and FAA;

      MBE participation in contracts financed with City funds.

   When a project is wholly financed with City funds, MBE participation goals may be satisfied either by meeting the MBE percentage referred to above or by the general contractor employing a same or greater percentage of minority workers on the project.

   When a project has state or federal funding, a pre-set minority requirement included in the grant agreement shall supersede the City's goal.

   Each goal shall be set on a percentage basis and the percentage shall be determined initially within sixty days after the effective date of this section and yearly thereafter by the Minority Contracting Goals Committee which is hereby established consisting of the following:

      (1)   Mayor.

      (2)   City Engineer.

      (3)   Director of Public Works.

      (4)   Service Safety Director.

      (5)   Manager of Community Development.

      (6)   Two members from Council, one of whom shall be the chairman of the Public Affairs Committee and the other shall be appointed every two years by Council from its membership.

      (7)   MBE Officer.

   (b)   The Committee shall consider the known availability of qualified MBE's and DBE's in establishing each goal.

   (c)   Each contractor who is awarded a contract funded by HUD, DOT or FAA shall use its best efforts to meet the goal established by the City for the contract awarded.

   (d)   Contractors shall, at a minimum, seek MBE's in the Richland County area. If the contractor cannot meet the goals using MBE's from this geographic area, the contractor, as part of its efforts to meet the goal, can expand its search to a reasonable wider geographic area, or under City funded dollars the workforce approach can be used.

   (e)   Bidders, submitting a bid for any contract shall disclose to the MBE Officer, in writing, the names and addresses of each DBE and MBE firm that will participate in the contract, if awarded to the bidder, a description of the work each named MBE or DBE will perform, and the dollar amount of participation in the contract by each named MBE or DBE. Such disclosure shall be made to the MBE Officer prior to award of the contract.

   (f)   Contractors shall make good faith efforts to replace an MBE subcontractor that is unable to perform successfully with another MBE and replace a DBE subcontractor that is unable to perform successfully with another DBE.

   (g)   Requests for bids published by the City in connection with projects funded by HUD, DOT and FAA shall inform potential bidders of the information which must be submitted to demonstrate their ability to comply with MBE/DBE requirements of the City.

   (h)   The City MBE Officer shall have discretion to decide whether each contractor has exercised its best efforts to meet its MBE/DBE contract goal. In deciding whether a contractor has exercised its best efforts, the City MBE Officer shall consider the following:

      (1)   If a pre-solicitation and/or pre-bid meeting is held whether the contractor attended any meetings that were scheduled to inform DBE's and MBE's of contracting and subcontracting opportunities;

      (2)   Whether the contractor advertised in general circulation, trade association and minority-focus media, as available, concerning the subcontracting opportunities;

      (3)   Whether the contractor provided written notice to a reasonable number of specific DBE's and MBE's enabling the DBE's or MBE's to participate effectively;

      (4)   Whether the contractor followed initial solicitations of interest by contacting MBE's to determine with certainty whether the DBE's and MBE's were interested;

      (5)   Whether the contractor selected portions of the work to be performed by DBE's and MBE's in order to increase the likelihood of meeting the DBE and MBE goals (including, where appropriate, breaking down contracts into economically feasible units to facilitate DBE and MBE participation);

      (6)   Whether the contractor provided interested DBE's and MBE's with adequate information about the plans, specifications and requirements of the contract;

      (7)   Whether the contractor negotiated in good faith with interested DBE's and MBE's, not rejecting DBE's and MBE's as unqualified without sound reasons based on a thorough investigation of their capabilities;

      (8)   Whether the contractor effectively used the services of available minority community organizations; minority contractors' groups; local, state and federal minority business assistance offices; and other organizations that provide assistance in the recruitment and placement of DBE's and MBE's; and

      (9)   Whether the contractor has provided documents and information which the MBE Officer has requested the contractor to provide to the City.

   The general contractor has an obligation to contract with qualifying minority contractors and vendors in the Richland County area. In the event no minority contractors or vendors are available in its scope of work or services, and the general contractor has documented that they have exhausted all means possible to contact qualified MBE's or DBE's in the Richland County area, depending on the funding, the contractor then can request a waiver from the MBE Officer.

   (i)   If the MBE Officer decides that a contract awardee has not exercised good faith to meet the contractor's individual contract goal, the MBE Officer shall recommend to the City Board of Control that the award of contract to such contractor be revoked.

(Ord. 93-001. Passed 1-5-93.)