by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The Jacksonville Small and Emerging Business (JSEB) program was created to help minority and women-owned businesses participate in the process of awarding City contracts.
City Council member Warren Jones held a meeting Monday night to find out why that community doesn’t think the program is working in regards to the County Courthouse project.
“We want to make sure the process is as clear and transparent as possible,” said Jones. “We wanted to bring the contractors and City administration together to find out what the problems are and see if we can start developing solutions.”
Council members Jones and Reggie Brown were joined by Alan Mosley, the City’s chief administrative officer, Adam Hollingsworth, mayor John Peyton’s chief of staff and Devin Reed, the director of Central Operations, which includes the City’s Procurement Division.
Although none of the contracts for work on the project have been awarded yet — some are under negotiation, however — minority contractors feel let down by the same program that is supposed to help them be a part of the bid process.
City Ordinance 2004-602-E states, “It has been concluded that several issues impede the progress of small businesses including bonding issues, access to capital, training, City procurement barriers and lack of resources for growth. To that end, the City has devised the Jacksonville Small Emerging Business Program (the “Program”) to address these concerns.”
About 30 minority contractors attended Monday’s meeting at City Hall.
“We are seeing repeated patterns in the bid process and the Courthouse project is a microcosm of bigger issues,” said Reggie Fullwood, an African-American contractor and former Council member who represented Dist. 9 from 1999-2006. “The way the program is set up, you can meet your JSEB requirements without hiring any minority contractors.”
The contract for structural concrete for the Courthouse project was pointed to as an example. United Forming of Atlanta is in negotiations with the City for the $17.5 million contract, and they are utilizing a contractor that has a woman-owned JSEB classification.
“That’s the legal environment we are in right now,” said Jones, the current Dist. 9 Council member.
He plans to have a representative of the City’s Office of General Counsel at the next meeting to find out what can be done to address the issue.
Another issue was the JSEB program only has a designation for “white” women.
“I’d like to see that opened up to minority women,” said Dawn Carter, a Jacksonville contractor.
City administrators were receptive to the information that was being presented to them at the meeting and were actively pursuing suggestions on how the City could make the process better.
“If we can better understand the problems,” said Hollingsworth, “then we can make changes to correct the system.”
One attendee pointed to Monday’s attendance to show that change is needed.
“Look at how many people showed up for this meeting,” said Isaiah Rumlin, NAACP Jacksonville Branch president. “That’s got to tell you there is a problem.
Jones indicated that there will be at least two more meetings with one discussing solutions with the bid process and another to discuss the JSEB program.
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