DEPARTMENT: Economic Development
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Rene Dominguez
COUNCIL DISTRICT(S) IMPACTED: City-wide
SUBJECT: Proposed SBEDA Ordinance Amendments
SUMMARY:
On December 3, 2015, City Council adopted the Disparity Study conducted by National Economic Research Associates, Inc. (NERA), which supports the legal basis for the continuation of the SBEDA Ordinance and the opportunity to implement proposed amendments to enhance the ordinance.
BACKGROUND:
In June 2010, City Council adopted significant revisions to the SBEDA Ordinance following findings from a 2010 Disparity Study. The amended ordinance incorporated best practices from around the country and extensive public feedback to address results of the 2010 study. The study was conducted to meet the legal standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court case Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. (1989). The Croson case requires that race-and-gender specific programs established by government entities pass a "strict scrutiny" test, which requires documentation of persisting discrimination and "narrowly tailored" remedies to cure the discrimination in order for the ordinance to be legally defensible.
The new program marked a turning point for the SBEDA Ordinance because it was redesigned to provide a narrowly tailored approach while creating meaningful Affirmative Procurement Initiatives ("tools") that would make an impact on the utilization of small, minority and women-owned enterprises (S/M/WBEs) in the San Antonio area.
Best practices recommend that disparity studies be conducted every five years. Therefore, on April 17, 2014, City Council authorized a contract with NERA to conduct a new disparity study which was adopted on December 3, 2015. The study indicated the City exhibited progress in utilizing M/WBEs on City contracts during the evaluation period. During this time, the City paid more than 23%, or $343 million, to M/WBEs. This amount is more than double the dollars paid since the previous stu...
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