Jacksonville can’t afford mandatory study of small-business program

The city’s Small and Emerging Business program was schedule to end Sept. 30, 2009. But the city isn’t able to clearly outline whether the program reached race- and gender-conscious goals for its contracts. Therefore, a disparity study to determine the availability and use of businesses owned by various racial minorities and women is now required by the 2004 ordinance that created it.

Devin Reed, the city’s director of procurement, said that will cost between $750,000 and $1.2 million. It’s money the city doesn’t have.

City Council President Richard Clark has pledged to find the money. A long-time critic of the city’s procurement policies, he said the council and minority contractors must be given all the facts about how the program is working.

“We need to find out if we’re meeting the goals and if indeed we need to go to a race-conscious JSEB program,” Clark said. “And we will find the money.”

The city’s goal was that collectively, small businesses would land 20 percent of its contract money. In the 2007-08 fiscal year, that figure was 24 percent.

But an independent audit of the program released in February said the city couldn’t identify whether the goals for women and minorities were reached. Instead, the city focused on the overall success of the Small and Emerging Business program, which is open to all small businesses regardless of whether they are owned by a woman or minority.