Irving creates Minority and Women Business Enterprise (M/WBE) program

by Jackie Hardy of North Dallas Gazette

The 2000 United States census reported Texas was the fourth state to have a non-white majority population and concluded 50.2% Texans were minorities, according to an online MSNBC report. One might ask why it took Irving over 100 years to adopt a program that supports equal business opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses. Anthony Bonds, community activist and founder of Irving NAACP, did ask that question. Bonds states, "I have pursued the city of Irving to adopt a M/WBE program for 14 years and I am glad we have a city manager who is in favor of this program."

In January 2007, the Irving City Council unanimously adopted council resolution No. 1-11-07-021 to demonstrate commitment to the inclusion of minority and women-owned business participation in all its procurement processes. The resolution outlined three objectives: establish a policy to provide equal opportunity in the city's procurement process for construction, professional services, other services, and goods; create and implement a formal compliance procedure for monitoring the M/WBE participation and goals; and build community confidence to ensure there will be no discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex in the award of contracts.

The purpose for the M/WBE program is to ensure minority and women owned businesses are actively solicited and given an equal opportunity to compete and participate as strategic partners and suppliers of goods and services within the city of Irving. Ramiro Lopez, director of environmental services, states, "The city leaders are committed to supporting the program because we know this is the right thing to do. This initiative will also encourage positive competition, increase awareness of our city, and offer savings for the city because it allows smaller minority and women owned firms with less overhead to participate." The leadership recognizes the cultural change that has occurred in the city of Irving. "Irving Independent School District (IISD) serves students that speak 54 different languages. This fact alone proves Irving is a diverse community. We understand it has taken the city some time to accept the cultural change and are confident the vision and plan of the City Manager Tommy Gonzalez will be effective and successful," states Lopez.

The M/WBE Program is not without challenges. Currently the position for M/WBE program administrator is open. "We want to find an individual who has a strong partnership with the business community, strong community involvement, and the ability to come in and hit the ground running," states Lopez. The city of Irving is accepting applications and hoping to have the position filled within the next 60 days. Lopez is very optimistic about the challenges the program has encountered within its first two years. One of the challenges they want to address by fiscal year 2010 is developing a centralized purchasing process as an effort to simplify the current system. According to Lopez the current system can be complicated due to the many departments overseeing the procurement process. "For example, if a contractor is submitting for a project that falls within the engineering department, then the purchasing agent within that department oversees that process and the same applies for projects that fall under a different department. When you have several departments involved and using different processes, it makes it confusing for the contractor. We are working to streamline the procurement process and it is our goal to have a centralized procurement process that will be managed by one department," advises Lopez. Streamlining the procurement process the city believes will also result in economic benefits, as well as effectively determining best use of skills.

Overcoming the barrier of past perceptions left by former city leaders is the major challenge the city of Irving's purchasing department is working hard to change. Ed Matthews, purchasing manager, states, "We are meeting our goal of awarding 26% of the bids to M/WBE firms, but the response is only 18 percent of M/WBE firms submitting bids. I am very passionate about seeing the percentage of M/WBE firms increased in responding to the bids we solicit. There is one out of five M/WBE firms who are actually submitting bids and we are committed to changing those numbers." Efforts the purchasing department is making to increase awareness and response include: having open houses that gives M/WBE firms an opportunity to address questions and/or concerns; providing specialized workshops that offer training that will help improve their business practices; maintaining updates for bid solicitation on the city of Irving's Web site; and sending notifications to all M/WBE associations to ensure firms are consistently aware of city projects available for bid.

Since the inception of the M/WBE program, there have been 25.9% contracts awarded to M/WBE firms. Muniz Construction, Inc., RKM Utility Services, Inc., McMahon Contacting, LP are a few of the over 20 M/WBE firms that were awarded contracts that totaled to over $16 million within the first and second quarter of the 2009 fiscal year. One of the most recent M/WBE firms who was awarded a contract was MACVAL , LLC. The firm was hired to oversee sewerage repairs and installation for sections one-three for the city of Irving. The project was an estimated $1.1 million project and MACVAL, LLC submitted the lowest bid. "We were able to win the bid by submitting a lower bid of $868,664.25 and we were so excited to win the contract after addressing some minor discrepancies that occurred during the bidding process. I know the program is new and the city is working to simplify the process, but overall the experience was good and we are glad our organization could benefit from the M/WBE program," states Aloysius Attah, certified professional engineer and owner/CEO of MACVAL, LLC.

The true success of the program is measured by accomplishing a community where race is not an issue and equal opportunity is afforded to everyone. This is ultimately the long term vision of the M/WBE program and it is a sentiment that the city of Irving leaders want to communicate and execute throughout the entire city.

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