The City of West Palm Beach begins the new year with a new twist on doing business. The Procurement Department will feature some of its Prime Contractors at the next outreach event, so small business enterprise owners can talk with them one-on-one.
Frank Hayden, the City’s Director of Procurement, will host the “Meet the Prime” networking event and panel discussion. It will be held 4-6 p.m. on Thursday, February 1, 2018, at the Mary V. McDonald-Wilson Center in Gaines Park, 1505 N. Australian Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Guests can RSVP to Aisha Darrough at 561-822-2103.
SBE owners can talk with and learn about upcoming projects from panelists Pamela Toussaint, Owner/CEO of Ultimate Image Coach; Maziar Keshavarz, owner/CEO of Keshavarz & Associates, Inc.; Brian MacClugage, executive vice president of Poole & Kent Company of Florida; Kevin Schanen, vice president of Kimley-Horn and Associates; Joseph Sanches, president of D Stephenson Construction, Inc.; and Neil Johnson, principal/project manager of Stantec.
Guests will also be able to talk with City representatives about how to become certified to bid on City projects, details on scheduled projects for 2018, and how to do business with the City. Hayden will be joined by Patricia Armstrong, senior purchasing agent, and Kevin Volbrecht, director of Engineering Services.
Hayden is encouraging more SBE owners to learn about City opportunities through his department. New procurement programs have been designed to increase the number of small businesses, women-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses certified to bid on new contracts and to increase the amount of contract work awarded to these businesses. The results of a recent Disparity Study have increased the need for greater inclusion among women-owned and minority-owned businesses on certain types of work available from the City.
In 2016, the Procurement Department introduced the Sheltered Market Program, bid equalization, the elimination of the Good Faith effort and new small business thresholds. Hayden has set a goal to increase the number of small businesses certified by the City by 5 percent annually and to increase the number of dollars spent with certified businesses by 5 percent annually, as well.
For example, the Sheltered Market program is created for only certified small business enterprises (SBEs) to be able to bid on contract opportunities valued at $500,000 or less. The ‘shelter’ allows SBEs to compete against each other instead of larger enterprises.
Bid equalization enables certified SBEs to compete with non-certified SBEs. If a bid by a certified SBE is within 10 percent of a bid by a non-certified SBE, the City can make the award to the certified SBE, even though its bid could be up to 10 percent higher, Hayden said. The City has also eliminated the Good Faith Effort, which created a loophole for larger enterprises to avoid awarding a percentage of their subcontract work to SBEs.
To assist small business owners through the process of becoming certified, the City is working with Paragon (www.paragonfl.org), which provides hands-on help with completing required paperwork and education on how to properly submit a bid.
The City of West Palm Beach Procurement Department offers opportunities for all suppliers, including small businesses. It values business relationships and strive to promote fair and equitable treatment of all suppliers. To learn more about its procurement opportunities in the area of goods and services, construction and professional services, visit www.wpb.org/procurement or call 561-822-2100.
