Fort Worth falls short on city spending with minority-owned construction firms

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By Scott Nishimura snishimura@bizpress.net

Fort Worth met its goals for city spending with minority and women-owned professional services and small business enterprises in 2013, but not with construction vendors, the city staff said in a report to the City Council Friday.

The city didn’t meet the construction vendor goal, because ordinance revisions in 2011 pushed the contract goals to expenditures of $50,000 or more from $25,000, and decreased the number of counties in the marketplace to six from mine, the staff said.

“Those revisions have resulted in an overall decrease in the number of available subcontractors for construction opportunities,” the staff said.

For 2013, the city’s goals for spending with minority and women-owned construction firms were 25 percent, professional services firms, 15 percent, and small business enterprise, 15 percent.

For fiscal 2013, the city let a total $204.2 million in construction contracts, 18 percent with minority and women-owned firms, the staff report said.

The city let a total $45.8 million in professional services contracts, 20.6 percent with minority and women-owned firms.

The city also let a total $14.3 million in small business enterprise contracts, 30 percent with minority and women-owned firms.

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Robert is a Fort Worth native and longtime editor of the Fort Worth Business Press. He is a former president of the local Society of Professional Journalists and was a freelancer for a variety of newspapers, weeklies and magazines, including American Way, BrandWeek and InformatonWeek. A graduate of TCU, Robert has held a variety of writing and editing positions at publications such as the Grand Prairie Daily News and InfoWorld. He is also a musician and playwright.