When the Guilford County Board of Commissioners met last month in High Point, there was a lot of handwringing by the commissioners over the fact that the county isn’t doing well at all when it comes to hiring minority- and women-owned businesses for county projects.
The county is currently conducting a disparity study that’s supposed to help in that regard, and the county is now seeking input from local business leaders.
To that end, Guilford County is asking all interested area businesses to take part in a virtual public meeting next month on Tuesday, June 7, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Those conducting the study hope to hear comments regarding Guilford County government and the county’s MWBE outreach.
The Guilford County Purchasing Department and county officials dedicated to increasing the number of MWBE participants constantly go out of their way to make sure that minority and women-owned firms know about projects being bid. However, in most instances, the county is legally bound to go with the company that has the lowest bid as long as that company is capable of doing the work.
The meeting will be an opportunity for the leaders of minority and women-owned businesses in Guilford County to share their experiences when it comes to either attempting to do business with the county or actually doing business with it.
Guilford County government has hired Griffin & Strong – a law and public policy consulting firm based in Atlanta – to conduct the Disparity Study and determine the effectiveness of the current efforts and recommend changes in county behavior, if needed, as long as those changes comply with state law.
One goal of the disparity study is to determine “if inequities exist in public procurement and contracting processes that adversely affect Disadvantaged Businesses/ Minorities and/or Women.”
Another objective is “to recommend programmatic remedies which can address any identified underutilization and reduce any barriers that adversely affect the contract participation of Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) firms.”
Those seeking more information – or those wishing to send in their comments on the subject – can email Griffin & Strong at guilfordcountystudy@gspclaw.com.
In looking at Griffin & Strong web site the first thing I see is, “We design and implement legally defensible programs for race and gender equity.”
Then I scrolled further down the page to see what else might be of interest there.
You tell me, what can one expect a company that “designs and implement …….programs” is going to find when it studies Guilford County? The money that this County Commission wastes away continues to astound me. No wonder Mr. Alston wants to keep an additional $92 million of tax payer hard earned money. He wants to play equity with it.
Kind of reminds you of the Supreme Court…hire by color and gender…qualifications are a non issue.
That isn’t how this program works. This programs are focused on increasing participation of minority and women owned business in the bidding process. Participation doesn’t mean winning as the city and county are required to accept the lowest qualified bidder.
So qualifications AND price are still the driver of decision making.
So tell ole great chris how much did the county spend to tell people they have a right to bid on these projects when most already know that they can. What a crock of chris crap and a total waste of taxpayer money.
One goal of the disparity study is to determine “if inequities exist in public procurement and contracting processes that adversely affect Disadvantaged Businesses/ Minorities and/or Women.”
Another objective is “to recommend programmatic remedies which can address any identified underutilization and reduce any barriers that adversely affect the contract participation of Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) firms.”
One PROGRAMMATIC REMEDY would be for those “Disadvantaged Businesses/ Minorities and/or Women.” to invest the time and effort in placing bids for goods and services that the County and City requires.
Sitting back and waiting for someone to gift you a contract while you complain to sympathetic County and City officials will only get you more to complain about and the disdain of those that do bid, and residents as well.
Do the due diligence and verify you’re qualified, then bid and get to work.
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. Process still only accepts the lowest cost qualified bidder. (Yost points this out in the article…did you even read it?)