NEW YORK. August 15, 2023 (Biz Republic) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed Executive Order 34, continuing his ongoing commitment to the Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) Program. Executive Order 34 standardizes data collection from city-affiliated agencies that will help facilitate the city’s full M/WBE performance outcome tracking in real-time and ensures that city agencies have a senior staff member — with a dual reporting relationship to the citywide chief business diversity officer and their respective commissioner on M/WBE outcomes— empowered to prioritize M/WBE programming. The newly created agency chief contracting diversity officer will ensure accountability across agencies and helps to further centralize shared, city-wide M/WBE goals.
“Each year, New York City spends billions on products and services. By building economic on-ramps for our minority and women business owners, we are creating jobs and improving the way government provides services to New Yorkers,” said Mayor Adams. “Our M/WBE program has already made a huge difference in our city, but there is always room for growth. Executive Order 34 provides the support needed to allow agencies to truly meet the mark by investing in our minority businesses and tracking our agencies’ progress in real time. This is not only a game changer, but how we expand economic opportunity for all across the five boroughs.”
“Creating a more equitable business environment for our city’s M/WBEs, particularly as we continue on the road towards a full post-COVID economic recovery, is a key priority for this administration,” said First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright. “Mayor Adams’ signing of Executive Order 34 allows for further centralized accountability, empowers agency leadership to drive resources towards their M/WBE outcomes, and enhances contractual opportunities for our diverse pool of city-certified M/WBE firms. I’m excited for the great M/WBE outcomes these combined directives will surely produce.”
“When Mayor Adams offered me the position of New York City’s first ever citywide chief business diversity officer, he assured me that he would be as committed to this program as I’ve been in my 30 years of M/WBE programming experience with the School Construction Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority,” said Chief Business Diversity Officer Michael J. Garner. “I commend Mayor Adams for honoring that commitment by signing this executive order that will further empower me and our respective agency staff in a way that certainly puts us on a path towards achieving his aggressive M/WBE goals. The mayor has aligned his actions with his words.”
“New York City’s procurement system is only effective when it is equitable and inclusive of our many diverse communities and businesses,” said Lisa Flores, director, Mayor’s Office of Contract Services. “This executive order takes a bold approach and stands as concrete action to address the structural disparities that harm M/WBEs and ultimately lead to increased costs for the city and decreased quality of goods, services, and construction for which we contract. I am delighted to work with Chief Business Diversity Officer Garner in continuing to implement the mayor’s aggressive M/WBE agenda and maximize the quality and quantity of opportunities for which our M/WBEs can effective compete.”
Under Executive Order 34, Mayor Adams today announced that mayoral agencies will be directed to:
• Require re-evaluation of M/WBE goals before any contract is renewed in an effort to assess current M/WBE availability;
• De-bundle capital project contracts over $25 million, which will create a more level playing field for smaller M/WBE vendors in construction, where the city’s largest disparities currently exist;
• Consider at least one quote from an M/WBE vendor firm on all emergency procurements, given the city’s current response to the asylum seekers crisis; and
• Standardize M/WBE performance data for city-affiliated agencies that are part of OneNYC.
