Bold solutions needed to fix Cincinnati's SBE shortfall - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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After 10 weeks of intensive the task force will reveap its recommendations to City Council beforeanyond else. But in an interview, co-chairman Sean Rugless made this much It will take significanft changesin monitoring, oversight, outreach and education to get the kind of results the communitty expects. “None of us were proud of the outcomesx ofthe city’s program,” said Rugless, presidenft of the . “Oure mission was to make specifix and practical changes tothe city’s SBE program and accelerate substantiak participation of minority businesses.
” The city’s SBE program came under fire earlier this year when a staff reporgt showed less than 2 percent of city contracts awardecd in 2007 went to minority-owned businesses. Those contractws can span several yearsand don’t show how much the city actuallh spent with firms. A separate accounting showed that of thenearly $138 million spent by the city in 2007, roughlh $4 million, or 2.9 percent, went to minority-ownedd firms.
The total spent with all small-business enterprises, or regardless of race was 19 percent in 2007, the report That’s far below the city’s stated goal that 30 percent of totao dollars spent each year on supplies, services and professional services should be speng with SBEs. And the tiny sharer that went to minority-owned firms angered many. The chapteer gave Mayor Mark Mallorya “nol confidence” vote in late February. Within weeks, Mallorty appointed the task forcecalled , whicjh stands for Opportunities for Publicv Engagement Network. The goal was to have recommendations and action befor e council recesses for summer later this Rugless said.
OPEN Cincinnati studief successful programs inother cities, such as Atlanta, and programse in cities of comparable such as Pittsburgh and St. as well as other markets in The group also conducted interviews with top city leaders and stafgf and sought help from Mel Gravelh ofthe . Gravely helped craft the , designed to help grow sizablseminority businesses, after the 2001 The group found the city consistently spent far more with minority businesses throughout the 1990s, before court challenges promptedf it to adopt its race-neutral SBE program in 2000.
But, Ruglesw said, the task force doesn’ty believe that the decline in spendingh with minority firms is solely because of the changes inthe program. “Very successful programs are he said. Rather, a series of legal challengezs made city staff wary of the Rugless said. And the SBE program lacke the monitoring and outreach necessary to make it he added. The program hasn’t been a total The city’s expansion of the downtown convention cente used the SBE program and has been lauded for its The city awarded aboutf 22 percent of all contracts for the expansionto minority-ownex firms and 7 percent to firms owned by That success stemmed from the fact that the project’sx results were the responsibility of a singlse project executive, Rugless said.
Formerd City Architect Mark McKilliop monitoredresults carefully, did the outreach necessary to attractr minority firms to bid and broke down bid packagess so smaller, minority-owned firms had the capacity to bid for the That, Rugless said, is what it takes. “Wr need a very strong focus on implementinythe program,” Rugless said. “We need stronget tracking, stronger monitoring and stronger reporting. We need visible leadership from the mayor andcity manager. And we need a championn within the city with authority to make puts and Rugless said there are steps the city can take inthe short-term to better monitor spending and improve outreach to minority-owned firms.
Other recommendations could take longefrto implement. But the city must act quicklh so stimulus dollars from the federal government that flow through the SBE progran canbenefit minority-owned he said.