Orlando city commissioners voted Monday to replace its Minority and Women Business Enterprise Program, nearly a year after the city suspended the program.<\/p>\n
Commissioners approved the creation of a small business enterprise preference program that encourages and promotes the participation of certified businesses in contracting and procurement with the city.<\/p>\n
The program includes a preference scale for veteran-owned business, but the ordinance establishing the program eliminates any references to \u201cwomen\u201d or \u201cminorities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c(Rescinding the program) is a blow, in my opinion, to the small business community as a whole when you lose programs like that,\u201d said Kenneth Hughes, the founder and owner of Keeping Projects in Motion, a Parramore-based company.<\/p>\n
Hughes had benefited from MWBE, as did his parents when they owned a business.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality of that program is you still had to work, you still had to be qualified, you still had to get in here and know your business and build relationships,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cBut it brought people to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city suspended the MWBE last May in an effort to avoid non-compliance with federal guidelines.<\/p>\n
Shortly after President Donald Trump took office last year, he issued an executive order targeting programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion–better known as DEI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn your work place, you should want diversity,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cYou should want to give people equity, and you should want inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although disappointed by the MWBE\u2019s termination, Hughes said he is looking forward to tapping into the new program.<\/p>\n
At the outset of Monday\u2019s city commission meeting, Commissioner Patty Sheehan shared her mixed feelings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI, too, am glad to see that we\u2019re seeing the small and local business enterprise program moving forward,\u201d Sheehan said. \u201cWhat I\u2019m distressed by is that women and minority-owned businesses are being singled out and disenfranchised by the federal government, and I think it\u2019s disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n
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