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OMWBD reports certification gains, sets June 2025 target for disparity‑study release
Summary
The Office of Minority and Women Business Development reported certification, compliance and outreach metrics and described a timetable for the office’s five‑year disparity study during an Economic Development Commission meeting.
The Office of Minority and Women Business Development reported certification, compliance and outreach metrics and described a timetable for the office’s five‑year disparity study during an Economic Development Commission meeting.
OMWBD senior manager Fahad Bey told commissioners the office currently has 29 pending certifications under desk review and has completed 97 new and recertification applications year to date. Bey said the office provided 43 business consultations, performed 18 bid‑compliance reviews, reviewed 41 bids and received five complaints. He said one file is pending denial or appeal.
Bey said the consolidated directory of XPE (minority, women and veteran‑owned) firms has grown to about 1,020 listings and gave percentage snapshots of utilization by agency type: combined city/county/municipal MBE utilization at about 12 percent, women‑owned business utilization about 7.6 percent, veterans roughly 1.3 percent and disability‑owned firms about 0.18 percent. Bey also listed project‑level utilization percentages on ongoing public‑private projects and described outreach and certification work.
Why it matters: Bey said the disparity study will drive the next utilization plan and potential ordinance updates. He described the office’s plan to publish the study in June 2025 and then convene a public Q&A and an internal working committee to draft policy recommendations. Bey said the goal is to present a new ordinance and utilization plan in the fall 2025 budget season for council and OMWBD board action.
Commissioners and staff asked about trends and capacity building. Commissioner Mark Young and others pressed OMWBD on where the office sees the greatest needs; Bey and Joseph Lee, who works in OMWBD, identified capacity building—mentor‑protégé programs, joint ventures and other supports to help small firms scale up—as the top priority. Lee said outreach and compliance tracking (letters of intent and good‑faith documentation) have improved in recent years, and that the directory has grown after processing a backlog of pending applications.
Bey said the office has contracted with a vendor, b2g, for a new certification and vendor‑management software package that will add online certification, an online directory, e‑blast capability to registered firms and a records module; he said the module is not yet live but is expected by the end of the year. He also said OMWBD is working with a prime contractor on the 2025 disparity study, which will include the consolidated city of Indianapolis and Marion County agencies, the Marion County Public Library, the Indianapolis Public School system and the Business Ownership Initiative division of the Indy Chamber.
The presentation included a slide list of OMWBD outreach events and a summary of projects where OMWBD is tracking contractor/subcontractor utilization. Commissioners asked for clarification on several percentage figures in the slides; staff and Bey provided those numeric clarifications during the meeting.
The commissioners did not take formal action on the OMWBD report at the meeting. Bey and Lee said the office will follow the disparity‑study timeline and proceed with public outreach and internal committee work ahead of ordinance drafting in the fall.
