Photos: Isseu Diouf Campbell
“More than 80% of New Yorkers identify as women or people of color, and yet when it comes to purchasing goods and services from the City’s multibillion-dollar budget, that diversity is few and far between,” said NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, addressing a group of African American business owners during its annual Making the Grade briefing: “Impact on the African American M/WBE Community” on February 13, 2020.
Of the $20 billion spent on contracts, the City awarded only 4.9% to Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises during the 2019 fiscal year.
Among the 9,000 M/WBE certified firms in New York City only 17% received payments for City contracts.
The City earned its first C grade after four consecutive years of D+ grades. Broken down into ethnic groups, the City of New York earned an F with African American M/WBE firms, which received the least amount of business of all minorities. Asian Americans were the top earners followed by Hispanic Americans, and women.
But the City’s grades, according to Comptroller Stringer, are improving.
“When we first looked at the City, almost 70% of the agencies were receiving Ds and Fs, but this year the Department for the Aging and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene maintained their A grade,” said Stringer. “The third year in a row, the Commission on Human Rights earned an A grade showing over 80% went to M/WBEs. Now that’s what the City should look like.”
The top six spenders with African Americans are: the Commission on Human Rights; the Department for the Aging; the Department of Cultural Affairs; the Department of Small Business Services; the Department of Youth and Community Development and the Office of the Comptroller.
“For the first time ever there were no F grades [among agencies] but some agencies still haven’t gotten the memo,” said Stringer. “Some agencies have received repetitive D grades and need to take a more aggressive approach.”
The Comptroller is referring to the Department of Finance, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Sanitation, and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services at the bottom of the list.
“Together these agencies make up $3 billion dollars of the City’s spending. They have to do better, ” Stringer added.
NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer’s Office also surveyed more than 500 M/WBEs who shared their concerns about the current M/WBE programs – 80% asked for fair RFPs, 70% complained about agencies’ unresponsiveness to their inquiries about contracting opportunities and another 80% wanted to be paid on time.
“You see scopes of work that are tailored to the previous vendor,” said Stringer. “You got to have previous experience with the agency, and then the RFP is tailored to the person who got the RFP. That language favors incumbent vendors. Keeping new M/WBEs out of the process has disproportionally favored white men-owned businesses because they have been doing this for a lot longer and they’ve got the contacts and the legacy.”
To help revamp the system, Comptroller Stringer recommended a Chief Diversity Officer at City Hall and in every City agency, but his proposal has fallen onto deaf ear.
“If there is no Wendy [New York City Comptroller’s Chief Diversity Officer Wendy Garcia] and team at an agency spending billions of dollars, there will be no M/WBE improvement,” said Stringer. “How do I know this? Not that I’m specially gifted at this, because I lived it for 6 years trying to get my A.”
NYC has created the Mayor’s Office of MWBEs in 2016, reached a goal of certifying 9,000 M/WBEs in 2019, and plans to award $25 billion to M/WBEs by 2025. But to many, this is still not enough.
“If we can’t change M/WBE practices, we can’t create economic wealth in all of our zip codes and all of our neighborhoods,” Stringer concluded. “When you have $20 billion dollars that are going to a handful of zip codes, to a handful of individuals, we are so behind in solving the wealth gap, the housing gap, and the education gap. It’s transformative, if we do this. “
Mayor David Dinkins first created the M/WBE program in NYC in 1992, only for it to be eliminated two years later by Mayor Giuliani. Minority and Women Owned businesses in New York City had to wait until 2005 when Local Law 129 re-established the program.
On the State level, Article 15-A M/WBE Bill co-authored by NYS Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte and Senator James Sander passed in 2019, extending the program until December 31, 2024 and increasing the discretionary threshold from $200,000 to $500,000, among other changes.
Stringer ‘s office started publishing the report in 2014 to show New Yorkers how the City spends its money with Minority and Women Owned businesses.
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