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Tampa Mulls Bid Process

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By ELLEN GEDALIUS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2007

TAMPA - Several city council members said Thursday that the administration's attempt to eliminate discrimination when awarding contracts is a good start but doesn't go far enough.

The discussion even prompted one council member to ask whether the city's small business, female and minority business efforts could be consolidated with Hillsborough County's, which has a successful program.

At issue is the city's ability to fairly award contracts to small businesses and businesses owned by minorities and women. A study conducted for the city by a consultant showed a disparity between the contracts awarded to groups and the number of those groups in the marketplace.

Like a similar draft ordinance before it, the measure presented to the council during a nearly two-hour workshop Thursday creates several sheltered markets, meaning only small businesses would be able to compete for contracts in some cases.

For example, construction projects valued at $200,000 or less would be open for bidding only to small businesses. Professional services contracts valued at $100,000 or less would be reserved for small businesses.

City Attorney David Smith said the city cannot use race as a deciding factor in awarding contracts, so a race- and gender-neutral approach has to be used.

The city also is developing a Plan B.

If the city finds evidence of discrimination as the small-business enterprise program runs, it can create similar sheltered markets for minority- and women-owned businesses.

The ordinance creates two committees, composed of city officials, to identify projects appropriate for the sheltered markets and make other decisions on how the programs work.

Councilmen Tom Scott and John Dingfelder said they were concerned those committees wouldn't include members of the public. They want the committees to include people who don't report to the city's chief of staff, and the meetings of those committees to be open to the public.

Scott also complained that the city council would have almost no role in executing the program.

"It has a lot of tweaking to do before I can support it," Scott said.

The council will take up the subject again in several weeks.

Reporter Ellen Gedalius can be reached at egedalius@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7679.

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