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City outlines new, broader disparity study and 13-week RFP selection timetable
Summary
Department of Economic Inclusion officials and contracted consultants told the Equitable Growth and Housing Committee the city will issue a revised RFP this spring to select a national disparity-study consultant and aims to complete the study in roughly one year after selection.
Steven Love, president and CEO of SRL Consulting, and his subcontractor Andre Ward told the Equitable Growth and Housing Committee on a city council panel that a revised disparity study RFP is ready and that the city expects to select a national consultant within about 13 weeks of the RFP’s release.
The study’s sponsor, Director Erica de Castillo of the Department of Economic Inclusion (DEI), said the new effort responds to problems with the 2023 study’s methodology and to feedback from six summer listening sessions with local firms and advocates.
"One of the biggest setbacks ... went back to the methodology that was utilized," Director Erica de Castillo said, describing how the prior study relied on certified-firm lists rather than estimating businesses that exist locally. That narrowed method, she said, affected program eligibility beginning Oct. 1, 2023.
Steven Love described the timeline and scope the consulting team wrote into the RFP. "We expect that within 13 weeks from now ... you will have selected a national consultant," Love said, adding the team is aiming for the study to begin with the 2026 budget calendar or on July 1 and to finish in about one year.
Love said the RFP requires the consultant to include certified and noncertified minority- and women-owned businesses in availability analysis and to pursue missing subcontractor data that earlier work omitted. "All races, ethnicities, and genders are gonna be included, will be included without exception," he said.
The RFP also calls for a marketplace-conditions review, a procurement-practices review and more specific proposal requirements (staffing plans, references and detailed methodologies) so the selection committee can evaluate differences among proposers. Love said the RFP requires a project-management plan from the winning consultant, periodic public transparency updates and a midterm presentation to council.
Council members used the committee discussion to press for consistent measurement with Hamilton County’s study, for inclusion of MWBE categories and for public transparency. Vice Chair Victoria Parks said the prior study "did not serve us well" and praised the steps to include veterans-, disabled- and LGBTQ-owned business considerations. Vice Mayor Kearney asked whether MWBE (minority- and women-owned business) goals would be reinstated; staff replied the RFP can accommodate goals targeted at MBEs, WBEs and MWBEs.
Several council members also asked about the legal and practical effect if federal guidance or courts change. Director de Castillo and consultant Steven Love said the prospective study will focus on city tax-dollar spending and remedies tied to local contract dollars, not federal funds, and that the city’s home-rule authority provides some policy room.
The administration said the new RFP will train the selection committee on disparity-study methods so members can compare proposers’ methodologies (for example, certified-list methods versus estimated-availability methods) before a consultant is chosen.
Committee members thanked the administration, DEI and the consultants and asked for the timetable and updates to be shared as the RFP process begins.
