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Portsmouth MWBE director outlines policy revisions, reports utilization at 2.4%
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Summary
Rebecca Atkins, the city's MWBE program lead, presented proposed policy changes and outreach plans to raise minority-, women- and service-disabled-veteran-owned contracting; council pressed for stronger enforcement, quarterly reporting and inclusion in major project committees.
Rebecca Atkins, Portsmouth's MWBE program lead, told the city council at its April 30 work session that the city's fiscal-year 2025 spending with minority- and women-owned firms was roughly 5% and that current utilization now sits at about 2.4%.
Atkins outlined a set of proposed changes to strengthen the MWBE policy, including more robust subcontractor and good-faith-effort forms, targeted vendor outreach, departmental training and the use of the Munis contracts module to track subcontractors and project goals. "Our fiscal year 25 spending was only around 5%. Today it is sitting at 2.4%," Atkins said, citing the data she compiled for the presentation.
The proposal also includes a separate small- and service-disabled-veteran (SDV) business program modeled on the state's SWAM approach. Atkins said the SDV/small-business policy would be race- and gender-neutral and allow set-asides and pricing preferences on smaller procurements, which she argued would help increase utilization of MWBEs on city projects that have state or federal funding rules to meet.
Vice Mayor Monique praised the outreach efforts and said the presentation reinforced why the program needed more visibility: "This is really important within why I personally wanted MWBE back on our work session agenda," she said, urging coordination with schools and resource partners to train potential vendors.
Councilmembers raised legal and operational limits: several noted that MWBE goals are currently aspirational and that the city lacks enforcement mechanisms that would make goals mandatory. Atkins said procurement already scores good-faith efforts as part of bid evaluations, but that many of the forms and tracking systems were previously underdeveloped and are now being revised.
Council members recommended additional steps including unbundling large contracts where feasible, creating minimum checklists for good-faith efforts, and regular reporting on progress. Atkins told council she expected draft policy language to be about 75% complete and that she could produce finalized drafts within about two weeks for review with procurement and legal.
City Manager Steven Carter said the administration is prioritizing implementation and has already begun compiling vendor and subcontractor data. "We're starting to put these things in place," Carter said. A two-member council committee (Councilwoman Bridal and Councilman Tillich) will be asked to work with staff on linking MWBE goals to major projects and on timely reporting back to the full council.
The council did not take a formal ordinance vote at the meeting; next steps will be staff-driven revisions, legal review and follow-up reports to the council.
