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FHWA: Everyday Counts summit, new DBE goals and freight outreach highlighted to Transportation Commission
Summary
A Federal Highway Administration representative briefed the commission on the Everyday Counts innovation initiative, the approval of California's DBE methodology (12.5% overall, with a 9.5% race‑conscious expectation) and expanded freight outreach tied to MAP‑21 implementation.
Vince Mammano, a Federal Highway Administration representative, updated the Transportation Commission on several federal initiatives and recent outreach in California.
Mammano described the Everyday Counts summit held in Sacramento and called it a hands‑on event focused on shortening project delivery and innovation. "One of the big pushes with Everyday Counts is innovation," he said, and described topics including programmatic agreements, locally administered projects, geospatial data collaboration and other delivery tools.
On Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) goals, Mammano confirmed FHWA approved California’s DBE goal methodology. "It's gonna be a 12.5% goal. It was 13.5, it's now 12.5," he said. He explained the distinction between race‑conscious goals (the percentage put on contracts) and race‑neutral efforts and said the state is targeting a minimum of 9.5% from race‑conscious measures on contracts. Mammano said Caltrans and local agencies will monitor goal setting and goal accomplishment, and FHWA will perform federal oversight. "The monitoring comes from Caltrans and the locals on the at the project level... As long as the actual accomplishment of the goals. Yes. We do that constantly. That's a regular... we get a monthly update," he said, and he credited the Caltrans Office of Business and Economic Opportunity for more active oversight.
Mammano also described freight outreach tied to MAP‑21 implementation. He said the FHWA and state partners held meetings after the Everyday Counts summit and that multiple meetings across California will be needed to gather stakeholder input on a national freight network and the freight policy under MAP‑21.
Why it matters: The DBE goal methodology approved by FHWA will change contracting expectations and monitoring on federal‑aid contracts in California; Everyday Counts and freight outreach inform state and local approaches to speeding project delivery and shaping national freight policy.
Mammano closed with a seasonal greeting to the commission and urged local agencies engaged in federal contracting to keep DBE outreach and monitoring efforts active.
