Mayor Spencer signed Executive Order No. 91 onstage at City Hall to resume minority- and women-owned business enterprise (MWBE) certification and to restart solicitation and execution of nonemergency public-works contracts under a project-specific equity framework. The order, Spencer said, is rooted in the city's 2024 disparity study and recommendations from the consultant Griffin and Strong.

The executive order directs the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) to resume MWBE certification "effective immediately" and to work with city departments to issue rules for calculating project-specific goals, the mayor said. Spencer added SLDC and city departments will "consider all recommendations in the 2024 disparity study and assist the Board of Aldermen in crafting the required legislation" to update the city code. "I will be signing Executive Order number 91," Spencer said.

The mayor and SLDC officials said the city paused new MWBE certifications in early August while it aligned policies with the disparity study and case law. Spencer said the pause was intended to avoid legal risk while the city developed a firmer legal framework; she and SLDC pointed to work by Griffin and Strong and multiple recent discussions with minority contractor groups as the basis for resuming activity. "This thorough analysis of our city's ordinances, the 2024 disparity study, and case law" and the firm's consultations "is the basis upon which Executive Order 91 was built," Spencer said.

Otis Williams, speaking for SLDC, said city staff and partners held 12 days of discussions with contractors and community groups and reviewed procurement operations. Williams said SLDC may "augment our workforce with maybe contract support" to accelerate certification and compliance work, but that steps for augmentation had not yet been finalized.

Speakers at the event also asked about federal implications and recovery funds. Spencer acknowledged pending federal requests, including for assistance from the Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA public assistance, and community development block grants, and said those pending requests were part of the reason the city paused contracting earlier. She described federal funding as material to rebuilding and said the project-specific approach strikes a balance between legal risk and rebuilding needs.

The announcement prompted both praise and concern during a brief Q&A and comments. A commenter criticized SLDC's selection of a company that, the commenter said, was formed two months after a tornado and received a $1 million appropriation; the mayor and SLDC described the procurement as conducted by RFP, reviewed by a standing committee that included the president of the Board of Aldermen's office and the comptroller's office, and shortlisted four finalists before making a recommendation. The administration said the process was "fair and equitable." The commenter's reference to a $1 million appropriation and the company's formation date was reported at the event and was not disputed on the record.

Local contractor groups at the event voiced support. Yafid Al Amin of MOCAN Construction and Contracting Assistance Center thanked "Mayor Spencer, her administration, as well as Griffin and Strong" and characterized the program as a remedy for past discrimination rather than a standard diversity program. Mikael Ali of APCA also praised the mayor and SLDC.

What the order does not do on the record is finalize city code changes; the mayor and SLDC said they will help the Board of Aldermen draft a bill to update the code. City officials also said the project-specific goal setting and the Griffin and Strong recommendations are intended to reduce legal vulnerability, but they did not cite pending or concluded court rulings that would settle potential legal challenges.

Implementation steps listed publicly at the event included immediate resumption of SLDC MWBE certification, department rule-making on calculating project-specific goals, and assistance to the Board of Aldermen on drafting code changes. Timelines for those tasks, the exact process for setting individual project goals, and whether SLDC will use temporary contract staff to speed certifications were described as forthcoming and not yet finalized.

The signing concludes the public portion of the announcement; Spencer then proceeded to sign the order at the event. Additional details, including any draft language for the board bill and a timeline for departmental rule-making, were not provided on the record and were described by officials as next steps.