FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PORTLAND, ORE. (July 1, 2009) – PORT IMPLEMENTS SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACTING PROGRAM CHANGES

The Port of Portland’s successful small business contracting programs are getting a boost starting today. As a result of a recently completed Disparity Study, the Port will today resume setting Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) contracting goals on federally funded projects and will expand its definition of “small business” to increase the pool of subcontractors available. 

The Port will expand its small business definition to include firms certified as small businesses in Oregon and Washington and will require that at least two of the bids in solicitation processes for $5,000 to $100,000 projects are from small businesses—the current requirement is one.  The Port will also research and develop a contractor rotation process to ensure that work is spread fairly among pools of on-call contractors.

DBEs are businesses that are certified as socially or economically disadvantaged and can be based on race and gender.  Recent court rulings prohibited setting DBE contracting goals on projects funded through the Federal Aviation Administration without first having evidence of the presence of a disparity between the availability of contractors and the utilization of contractors, or its effects on the recipients’ contracting processes.  Disparity studies help establish that evidence.

“The bottom line for us in this study,” said Port small business development program manager Rhonnda Parsons Edmiston, “is to make sure we do the best we can with our small business contracting programs within the legal guidelines. We want to insure open and fair access for all businesses to compete for and be awarded contracts for Port business opportunities.  Ninety-eight percent of the businesses in the Port’s contracting market are small businesses and are important stakeholders.  We have successful programs at the Port now, but we know we can always do better in reaching out to those businesses.”

The Port knew a study was needed when the Port saw DBE participation in projects decrease in the absence of project goals. The study compared data on the Port’s utilization of firms with the availability of those firms in the Portland region from July 2002 to June 2007.  The underlying assumption of the comparison is that there should not be “disparity” between contracts awarded to a particular minority group and contracts one would expect to see awarded based on the numbers of that group in the relevant population of firms. 

The study looked at statistics for African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Native American, non-minority women and non-minority firms. The study also included personal interviews, focus groups, and a public meeting. “We really owe a great deal of thanks to all of the firms and individuals who assisted us in gathering the data,” said Parsons Edmiston.

While the report found that some disparity for prime and subcontracting existed in all business categories, it commended the Port in several areas including the level of outreach and program satisfaction, its utilization of minority enterprises in concessions at Portland International Airport, establishing an Emerging Small Business Program, and its Mentor Protégé Program.

Other actions that will be considered and perhaps implemented at a later date as a result of the study include:

·         conducting a review of the Port’s bonding and insurance requirements to remove any unnecessary hurdles for small business and helping distribute information about bonding assistance programs offered in the area

·         increasing small business/DBE participation through the use of retail carts in the airport terminal

·         researching incentives for terminal concession operators to purchase goods and services from Minority, Women, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises

·         setting goals for rental car tenants to purchase goods and services from Minority, Women, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises and

·         researching ways to assist Mentor/Protégé program participants with bid/proposal solicitation follow-up.

The complete Port Action Plan, the Disparity Study Executive Summary and other study documents as well as information on all of the Port Small Business Development programs are available on the Port’s website at  http://www.portofportland.com/Notices/POP_Dsprty_Stdy_02_blt.htm

or by contacting Rhonnda Parsons Edmiston at 503-944-7587.