Page 13 - Florida Sentinel 9-11-15 Edition

FLORIDA SENTINEL FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
B
Results Of TIA Disparity Study Discussed At Aviation Authority Board Meeting
TIA To Review Comments, Diversity Recommendations
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Last Thursday, members of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority held a public meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss their Disparity Study and gather community input.
Attorney Elita McMillon,
attorney for the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority said they will review the recommenda- tions of the Diversity Study con- ducted by MGT of America, as well as the community input ob- tained during the meeting. They will review the information and determine what is feasible for im- plementation, what they feel will improve the services offered, and what suggestions may need to be approved.
“Some of the recommenda- tions made by MGT included: vendor rotation; establishing sup- plier diversity as a goal in per- formance evaluations for some Aviation Authority employees, expanding the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program Of- fice Staff; and appointing pro- gram liaisons in departments with significant procurement op- portunities.
“We can implement some- thing like vendor rotation al- though it may present some challenges. But, we received a
suggestion about Veteran prefer- ences. This would include a policy change and the board must make that change. We had already de- cided to add two new staff mem- bers and appoint key persons to serve as liaisons in key areas.
“We are going to take all of the information and discuss it inter- nally. Once we review it, we hope to have an action plan by the end of the year,” she said.
MGT analyzed contracts that the Tampa Airport had awarded to minority firms in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and Hernando Counties. The study focused on the contracts awarded from Octo- ber 1, 2007 to September 30, 2012.
The study concentrated on the availability of contracts for women and minority-owned firms in comparison with the per- centage of contracts awarded to other firms. The areas studied were: construction, professional services, non-professional serv- ices, and goods.
The study confirmed that there still exists a disparity overall in the area of subcontracting. It also recommended that the Hills- borough County Aviation Author- ity maintain its program to encourage W/MBE business owners to submit contracts with the organization.
By Kenya Woodard Sentinel Feature Writer
The results of an updated dis- parity study commissioned by the Hillsborough County Avia- tion Authority garnered heavy scrutiny from business owners last Thursday at a public meet- ing. The Aviation Authority manages Tampa International Airport (TIA). Joe Lopano is the CEO.
In late 2011, Tampa Interna- tional Airport officials began the process of updating the Master Plan for the airport’s 3,300-acre campus. The final plan, approved in 2013, out- lines three phases of expansion to accommodate 35 million pas- sengers each year.
The first phase takes care of immediate needs to decongest the curbsides, roads and Main Terminal. It includes a 2.6 mil- lion-square-foot consolidated rental center near the entrance to the airport, a 1.4-mile auto- mated people mover and an ex- pansion of the Main Terminal. The $953 million project is expected to create or save nearly 9,000 construction- related jobs worth $370 million in wages.
The study, conducted by Tallahassee-based research consulting group MGT of Amer- ica, Inc., measured the partici- pation of available minority and woman-owned businesses in the Authority’s contracting ac- tivities. The Authority’s last dis- parity study was completed in 2007.
In the latest study, MGT an- alyzed contracting data from 2007 to 2012 and specifically looked at payments made to firms in the Tampa/St. Peters- burg/Clearwater metropolitan area that had a direct contract with the Airport in the areas of construction, professional serv- ices, non-professional services, and goods and supplies.
According to the study, dis- parities exist in the utilization of W/MBE (women and minor-
ity business enterprises) and the DBE (disadvantaged busi- ness enterprises) in non-feder- ally funded construction, professional services, non-pro- fessional services, and goods and supplies contracting.
For example, in the area of non-federally funded spending for professional services, they conducted business with just 1.08 percent of African-Ameri- can owned firms even though the availability of African- American owned businesses to do business with the Authority was more than 15 percent.
MGT also collected anec- dotal information via focus groups, surveys, and interviews from more than 500 business owners that have done business with or attempted to do busi- ness with the Tampa Interna- tional Airport.
Findings include W/MBE and DBE firms faced common barriers such as access to capi- tal, projects too large for their firm to be competitive, or not given equal and fair considera- tion during the selection process. W/MBE and DBE sub- contractors expressed their dis- satisfaction with the practices of prime contractors and rec- ommended that the Authority add more staff to its W/MBE and DBE program to provide better service to firms.
While the TIA had strong W/MBE and DBE participation of African-American and His- panic owned firms in construc- tion subcontracting in non-federally funded projects, it was less successful in achiev- ing W/MBE and DBE participa- tion in construction and construction-related prime con- tracts, according to MGT’s exec- utive summary of the study.
After the presentation, busi- ness owners and community stakeholders grilled MGT staff members and TIA staff mem- bers Al Illustrato, vice presi- dent of facilities and administration, Elita McMil- lon, Esq., director of ethics, di-
versity, and administration, and Cheryl Hawkins, DBE pro- gram manager.
Studies are good, but what really matters is the implemen- tation of effective changes that are prompted by the studies, said Eddie Adams, Jr.
“The numbers speak for them- selves,” he said. “If there’s not going to be follow up to the process, then really, you’re just generating some numbers.”
Attorney McMillon
pointed to “bright spots” in the study that show they are mov- ing in the right direction, par- ticularly in the area of African-American contractors on construction-related proj- ects.
“We’ve seen some suc- cesses,” she said. “It’s not all bad news.”
Atty. McMillion said one area of importance is finding ways to increase the number of subcontractors as prime con- tractors. But doing so won’t happen overnight.
“Some things are policy, so we have to take it to the Board for approval,” she said.
Additionally, TIA adminis- trators and staff are taking heed to business owner’s pleas to increase personnel in its W/MBE and DBE program, Mr. Illustrato said.
“We’re going to have more people on Elita’s staff to move forward, and we’re committed to that,” he said.
The manner in which the procurement process is set up is also important, said Vernetta Mitchell, senior consultant with MGT.
To encourage more minor- ity firms to participate in the process, Ms. Hawkins said she works to foster relation- ships between subcontractors and prime contractors.
“Folks do business with folks they know and trust,” she said. “That’s how business is done.”
“But the study doesn’t pro- vide a complete picture because
there are major holes in it,” said Tampa businessman Joe Robin- son.
For example, the study should have examined the number of in- dividual firms awarded contracts and not just the percentages of the total amount of money that was spent, he said.
Also, TIA’s practice of lumping W/MBEs and DBEs together is flawed, Mr. Robinson said.
“You’ve defined a minority business as a DBE,” he said. “You didn’t do a study on disparity of DBEs.”
Mr. Robinson, the president of RHC and Associations, Inc., said while the TIA can hire more peo-
ple, it also needs to be more ac- countable.
Mr. Robinson called the TIA’s ability to keep account of all the minority firms that it has done business with via tracking system “inadequate.”
Other changes the TIA staff could implement include to en- courage prime contractors to pull from the small business pool and remove barriers that may automat- ically disqualify minority-owned firms – such as requiring business have five years of experience doing business with the airport, he said.
Mr. Robinson urged the TIA staff members to “learn from these mistakes.”