DeKalb County procurement staff outlined how the county's Local Small Business Enterprise (LSBE) program works and encouraged small firms to pursue certification, stressing that primes on solicitations of $100,000 or more must include at least 20% participation by an LSBE or document a good-faith effort.

The county said its LSBE list is searchable on the DeKalb website and that procurement staff will review prime contractors' good-faith efforts when they report they cannot locate LSBEs. Procurement staff also said the county coordinates with WorkSource and the First Source jobs ordinance to connect employers with workers and suppliers.

County staff announced a free DeKalb Supplier Academy to run in October (five Thursdays) to expand the pool of certified suppliers. Staff encouraged interested firms to register through the county newsletter and at the procurement table on site. The presentation noted the county is exploring software to replace a manual LSBE enrollment process and will publish an electronic LSBE roster for prime contractors to search.

Why it matters: DeKalb uses LSBE certification to direct subcontracting on county procurements and to create a pipeline of local firms for county work. The 20% participation benchmark is set by county executive leadership and will be tracked in the procurement review process. County staff said the certification also helps suppliers who have SAM.gov IDs and correct NIGP commodity codes appear automatically in internal searches for non-solicitation purchases.

What county staff said about participation and enforcement: procurement staff said when a prime cannot meet the LSBE participation benchmark it must document a good-faith effort, which staff review. Staff also said the county removed addresses from the public LSBE listing to protect business owners' contact privacy and recommended using a PO box or virtual address for public filings where appropriate.

Next steps: The county will distribute LSBE resources via a newsletter and push short procurement and e-procurement micro-trainings for both internal users and certified suppliers.