Interim director: 5% cut would slow certification and prevailing-wage reviews, staff warns

Interim Director Ligia Saltor told the Budget and Finance Committee that the Department of Economic Inclusion would face immediate service impacts if the council adopts a 5% budget reduction.

"That 5% ... was equivalent to $84,962," Saltor said, adding: "This will have a huge performance impact to our department." She said the cut would slow processing of goal determinations, bid reviews and certification applications and could delay departments that rely on timely prevailing-wage analyses.

Saltor outlined recent department performance: in the most recent reporting periods the office certified 24 new firms in the first quarter and 70 in the second, and it completed nearly all prevailing-wage determinations on target (96% in one quarter and 100% in the next after staffing changes). The department said it currently operates with a 14-person team and one open position and is seeking additional development managers and a deputy director to sustain outreach and processing capacity.

On certification timing, Saltor pointed to an ordinance from the early 1990s that requires certifications to be completed in 90 days but said applications are more complex now and comparable certifiers often take 120 days. "A lot of times the documents are not very clear and we have to get some additional information from the vendor or the applicant, and so that can also cause a delay," she said.

Saltor highlighted a February 2026 memorandum of understanding with the State of Ohio to create reciprocal certification for WBEs, which she said will let state-certified women-owned firms obtain reciprocal city certification with a site visit and a turnaround of about three weeks. She also described regular events and trainings — including an annual business enterprise expo (about 700 registered, roughly 563 attendees and 16 sponsors) and upcoming LCP tracker training on May 6 and a certification day May 21 — as tools to increase the certified pool.

Council members pressed on the disparity study timeline; Saltor said the request-for-proposal is ready and that a typical disparity study takes about 18 months once funded. Several council members urged that funding the disparity study and additional staffing be priorities to preserve processing speed.

The committee did not take a vote on any action during the presentation; Saltor concluded by asking council members to consider the operational consequences of proposed reductions as the manager drafts the next budget.