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Council questions $1.2M contract increase for MWBE outreach tied to Forever Home Durham bond work
Summary
Council members pushed staff to provide more detail before approving an amendment to a contract with United Minority Contractors of NC to extend outreach, section 3 and Davis-Bacon compliance work connected to Forever Home Durham; staff and the vendor said the amendment funds compliance, outreach and contractor capacity-building.
Durham City Council members on Thursday questioned a proposed amendment to a contract with United Minority Contractors of North Carolina Inc. (UMC NC) to expand outreach, workforce and federal compliance support for Forever Home Durham bond projects and other housing work.
Reginald J. Johnson, director of the Community Development Department, and Renee Jones, the project lead for UMC NC, described the contract’s purpose as threefold: (1) outreach to minority- and women-owned (MWBE) firms; (2) assistance to general contractors and developers to create and implement workforce development and Section 3 plans; and (3) compliance monitoring for Davis-Bacon wage rules that apply to federal funds. "The contract consists of, probably 3 main areas. 1 is to do outreach to the, MWBE firms... 1 is to help the contract the general contractors and the developers to create and implement a workforce development plan... And the third part is to do all of the compliance on the Davis Bacon," Jones said.
Council members asked why the contract was structured with an initial shorter term that now requires an amendment and a roughly 30% increase in funds. Johnson said the initial contract intentionally included a break so staff could assess the firm’s performance before extending; because bond implementation and related federal funding are ramping up the city now seeks to continue the relationship. Jones said much of the work is capacity-building—training local firms to be competitive in bids, helping developers invite and prepare MWBE subcontractors, and performing federal compliance tasks that require specialized attention.
Council members asked for more transparency and supporting materials. Council Member Cook requested the original contract and clearer documentation on what the amendment buys, and Council Member Royster asked staff to provide the underlying MWBE participation data. A staff representative read a breakdown showing Durham-registered MWBE participation to date—"to date, the goals that have been met are actually about 13% for minority owned firms and 12 for women owned firms"—and said the firm has helped the city exceed the city’s 11% minority and 7% women participation goals for Durham-based firms so far.
Several council members supported the program’s goals but said the packet lacked sufficient backup to justify the dollar increase without seeing the original scope, earlier performance reports or the vendor’s deliverables. Staff agreed to provide the original contract, the detailed scope of work and performance metrics to council members as follow-up.
Ending: Council did not vote on the amendment at length during the pulled-items discussion; members expressed support for the policy objective of including MWBEs in bond-funded housing projects and asked staff for more complete documentation before approving the funding amendment.
