The City of Cincinnati still isn't utilizing businesses owned by women and minorities in proportion to their availability in the region, a new report says.
City Council's Budget and Finance Committee got a report Monday from Griffin & Strong, the Atlanta-based firm that studied the city's contracting between 2016 and 2020.
Their study found that while eligible firms in the region owned by women or minorities ranged from 10% to 25% of all firms in industries the city utilizes, the city was paying out less than 5% of its contracting dollars to those firms.
Griffin and Strong's research divided those firms into five categories: construction, architecture and engineering, professional services, other services and goods.
Women and minority-owned businesses make up about 20% of the available firms in the local construction industry, the study says, but the city only spent about 17% of its prime and subcontracting construction dollars with those firms. Almost 25% of architecture and engineering firms are women or minority-owned, but the city only spent about 14% of its contracting dollars with those. Similar or larger gaps existed in other industries.
There has been some improvement since the last time the city looked at equity in its contracting practices in 2015. The previous study found the city only spent about $12 million with women and minority-owned subcontractors between 2009 and 2013. Meanwhile, the city spent $55 million with those contractors between 2016 and 2020, according to the recent study.
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Griffn and Strong representatives told council they didn't have other comparisons to previous data on hand. The firm did make 10 suggestions for improvement.
Among those suggestions: increase resources and staffing for contracting equity efforts; set separate, annual goals for minority-owned and women-owned businesses; require firms that win large contracts engage in "joint ventures" with smaller women and minority-owned businesses; and increase and refine data collection around contracting practices.
The city will take up some of those suggestions in October.
"This has very visceral resonance for us," said Council Member Reggie Harris. He said the city has made good progress on better inclusivity in its spending with contractors, but he wants to see more data about where the city was in 2015 versus now.
The city has taken steps to increase equity in its contracting practices since that last report. It now has a Department of Economic Inclusion, which helps guide women and minority-owned businesses through a certification process so they can bid on city contracts. The department also runs programs aimed at boosting diversity in contracting, including one that prioritizes small businesses for city contracts under $250,000.
The department hasn't been fully staffed until recently, Interim Director Laura Castillo told council, adding she sees lots of opportunity to make progress toward more economic inclusion.
"I think there are some great opportunities coming with the Brent Spence Bridge project and the Western Hills Viaduct," she said. "I really think that we can be a lot more strategic with the resources we're providing, and engagement with some of these larger opportunities coming down the pipeline will be crucial."