On December 13, 1999, the Board of Supervisors approved the Small Business Enterprise (SBE) Program for the purpose of providing small businesses a fair share of County business. The program covers construction contracts of $25,000 or less, and purchasing and professional/personal services contracts of $50,000 or less. For those contracts and transactions that are not exempt from the program, 50% of the dollar amount will be awarded to small businesses, as defined in the program. The Board directed the County Administrator to work with County departments to implement the program and referred the program to the Internal Operations Committee (IOC) for continuing policy oversight and development of recommendations for program changes, if warranted. For example, at the IOC's recommendation, the Board of Supervisors in 2006 exempted certain limited categories of purchases and services in which departments could not achieve SBE Program goals due to the specialized nature of the transactions and the limited number of providers of those goods and services.
The Outreach Program was adopted by the Board of Supervisors in August 1998 to promote broad outreach to all businesses, currently including MBE, WBE, DVBE, SBE, LBE, and other businesses. It currently applies to professional/personal service contracts in the amount of $2,500 or more, purchasing contracts in the amount of $10,000 or more, and construction contracts in the amount of $100,000 or more.
The IOC has provided policy oversight on the programs since their inception, including surveying County departments on the implementation of the SBE and Outreach Programs and overseeing the progression to electronic web-based outreach. We find that most County departments are actively participating in the programs and meeting program goals. The Affirmative Action Officer monitors performance quarterly and updates the IOC semi-annually. The Affirmative Action Office sends letters to those departments not fully complying with the programs or meeting program objectives, and follows up through the IOC with reports of any problems or recommendations for program modification. If necessary, the IOC may request a department to submit an explanation for any lack of participation in the programs.
On December 12, 2011, the IOC accepted the attached report from the Interim Affirmative Action Officer and directed staff to forward the report to the full Board of Supervisors for review and approval.
The reports will not be accepted by the Board of Supervisors.