Page 48 - Florida Sentinel 4-15-22

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have to relinquish any of their self-performing work to Black owned companies.
Ransom says that the groups met with DPR to encour- age them to voluntarily relin- quish 20% of their construction management fee and relinquish a minimum of 25% of their self- performing work directly to Black owned companies in Tampa. This was done to help the community and ease the chal- lenges the city faced in terms of the public challenge about being excluded. DPR Construction agreed to all TOBA/SMBG re- quests.
Ransom says that TOBA/SMBG provided DPR Construction with names of all the Black owned engineering and construction related companies known to them to enhance the company’s list of names. DPR updated TOBA/SMBG regularly to highlight the progress they were making.
TOBA/SMBG then met with the City of Tampa Attorney and her staff to express concerns about what they heard about the City of Tampa Contracts Admin- istration's alleged role in causing Black business owners' concerns. The group was able to reaffirm the expressed concerns by stating that it appeared the State of Florida Statute related to the Consultants' Competitive Negoti- ation Act (CCNA) along with the related City of Tampa Executive Order may have been violated. It was requested the City Attorney and her team to meet with City of Tampa Administration to make sure that the CCNA and City of Tampa Executive Order were complying.
TOBA/SMBG concluded that the City of Tampa should have contracted the services of an Owners Representative prior to executing a contract with DPR. However, the group learned that the City of Tampa was still able to revise the contract. They recom- mended that the City Attorney meet with the City of Tampa Ad- ministration to solicit an Owner’s Representative.
The City of Tampa immedi- ately complied. The request stip- ulates a limited scope EBO and Apprenticeship.
Ransom, speaking on behalf of TOBA/SMBG, stated, “As a re- sult of the stated intentions of DPR and the City of Tampa, we believe positive actions are un- derway to address concerns raised by Black businesses and the Black community by includ- ing Black businesses in actual contracted work, improving pro- curement with better policies, procedures and practices and contracting the services of an owner’s representative.
“We support this positive movement but will monitor ac- tions by the City of Tampa and DPR until we see results that re- flect this ideal.”
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