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Auditor reports $2.1B in payments under $500K and $4.7B total; disparity study draft under counsel review
Summary
Auditor-Controller Melissa Wilk told the committee that payments up to $500,000 totaled about $2.1 billion (roughly $1.24 billion paid to local contractors, ~59%) and total payments including larger contracts were about $4.7 billion; she said Mason Tillman submitted a draft disparity study and counsel has reviewed part of it.
Melissa Wilk, Alameda County Auditor-Controller-Recorder, presented the quarterly payments report on July 15, describing cumulative payments through March 31, 2024 and the county9s tracking of local and MWBE/SLAB payments.
Wilk said payments up to $500,000 for the covered period totaled about $2.1 billion, with approximately $1.24 billion paid to local contractors (about 59% of that category). Total payments including amounts over $500,000 amounted to about $4.7 billion, with roughly $2.5 billion to local contractors (approximately 53%). Wilk also provided breakdowns by category (construction, architecture & engineering, professional services, goods and services) and reported MWBE/SLAB shares within those categories.
Wilk described steps taken to reduce certification burden for SLAB applicants: auditor staff now conduct site visits to collect documentation in person and the office is working with the county IT department to streamline online applications following an internal hackathon.
On the county9s disparity study, Wilk and project manager Laura Lloyd said Mason Tillman submitted the report; counsel has reviewed seven of 12 chapters and five chapters remain with counsel. Wilk declined to give a firm completion date, saying returned comments from Mason Tillman and counsel review remain outstanding.
Supervisors asked why the reporting series starts in 2009; Wilk said that date follows the prior disparity study and reporting practice, and staff are prepared to examine alternate look-back windows once recommendations are finalized. Public commenter Clarence Hunt raised a chart he said showed payments to African American male vendors in professional services fell from roughly $38.1 million to about $3.2 million between 2009 and 2024; Wilk said the auditor9s office could investigate but noted that contract letting is managed by departments and GSA while the auditor tracks payments.
Next steps: staff said they can run payment reports from the financial system on request, but mapping services to geographic service areas or extracting service units would likely require manual review of backup documents; Wilk agreed to follow up with departments to see what can be pulled or standardized.
