Unified contract process proposed

Basar seeks new policy after study

Armed with numbers that show minority- a nd female-owned businesses receive a fraction of Shelby County’s contract dollars, commissioners now have the opportunity to reinvent the county’s contracting policies.

But the county is not alone in studying the issue. The city of Memphis and Shelby County Schools are in various stages of disparity studies, with the city’s results expected to be released this year.

Once those reports are in, County Commissioner Steve Basar has proposed uniting all three systems under a single application process that is easier for business owners.

“There are certain aspects of how we do things that are ancient and archaic,” said Basar, who has spent his career in corporate supply chain management, inventory management and purchasing.

Results f rom the county’s disparity study, previewed on

Wednesday, show that between 2012 and 2014, 88 percent of contract dollars went to businesses owned by white men, with their businesses receiving $168.2 million of a total $190. 5 million.

Businesses owned by African-Americans secured 6 percent while businesses owned by white women received 5 percent.

Oakland, California-based Mason Tillman was contracted by the county to perform the study.

“We need to look at best practices across the country because we’re not alone in this,” Basar said. “I’m a big advocate of city and the county and the schools, and each one has their own process and their own way of doing it and their own certifications. And it’s ridiculous.”

School board member Kevin Woods agrees.

“We think that it doesn’t make sense that every government agency has go through the same process. Wouldn’t it be great if we had one list that everyone could pull from and if you were approved by one entity you could do business with the rest?” Woods asked. “But until that’s the case, we know as a school system we have to do more to make sure that we’ve giving local and minorityowned business a fair shot to do business with the school system.”

But County Commissioner Heidi Shafer doesn’t agree that every component of the county’s purchasing policies should mimic corporate America.

Lowest bids aren’t always the best bids and it is the responsibility of government to be both cost effective and fair, she said.

“This is taxpayer money that we take by force, and I think we should be held to a higher standard in how we disburse it,” Shafer said.

She believes that contracts have been awarded in the past to companies that are familiar.

“Some of it, I think, may be conscious, but I think the greater majority is unconscious,” Shafer said.

She also hopes that the final report provides more information on female-owned businesses and that it breaks those down by race as well.

The county’s current policy is race- and gender-neutral and was crafted after the county lost a 1993 lawsuit. The court ruling does not allow the county to change its purchasing policy unless a disparity study is conducted.

“We do not have an MWBE (minority women-owned business enterprise) program, and I think we all knew that once we completed the disparity study it would provide us with the basis for establishing one,” county chief administrative off icer Harvey Kennedy said Wednesday.

In addition to racial and gender disparities, the study also noted that 47 companies received 70 percent of the county’s business, while 42 percent of the contracts went to firms outside of Shelby County.

“White guys in general are not getting all the work, a few white guys are getting all the work,” Mason Tillman president Eleanor Mason Ramsey said Wednesday.

In her presentation, Ramsey noted some recommendations are race- and gender-conscious. Nowhere is the word “quota” used.