Meeting_Body
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
DECEMBER 2, 2021
Preamble
Motion by:
DIRECTORS SOLIS, HAHN, DUPONT-WALKER, SANDOVAL, AND BUTTS
48 by '28: Increasing Small and Disadvantaged Business Participation
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) requires state and local transportation agencies to establish goals for participation of disadvantaged business enterprises (DBE) on contracts and procurements supported by the USDOT. This DBE participation goal is determined by the state or local agency based on a variety of factors including the availability of qualified DBE's. Metro re-evaluates its DBE participation goal every three years and the current goal covering Federal Fiscal Years 2022 through 2024 is 28 percent. Metro also has a Small Business Enterprise (SBE) program for projects without federal funds, which was first established in 1997 with an initial goal of 15 percent SBE utilization. Today, Metro's overall SBE participation goal is 30 percent, and a participation goal of 3 percent for Disadvantaged Veteran Business Enterprises (DVBE) is also set any time an SBE goal is established for a contract. During any contract solicitation preparation process, Metro staff considers whether or not to establish a DBE, SBE and DVBE participation goal based on various factors such as funding type and availability of subcontracting opportunities. When these participation goals are established, they become a mandatory condition of award and awardees are expected to meet or exceed their participation goals over the duration of the contract. We further understand that firms can meet DBE goals by submitting satisfactory evidence of having conducted Good Faith Efforts. These goals are partly intended to help address the disparities between the number of available small, minority- and women-owned businesses qualified to do certain kinds of work and the actual proportion of Metro contract/procurement dollars that are awarded to them.
Over 90 percent of businesses in Los ...
Click here for full text