Essex County study finds MWBE firms capture about 10.5% of procurement spend amid 32% availability; commissioners vow action

Essex County officials on Tuesday heard a county-funded disparity study showing a large gap between the share of minority- and women-owned firms in the county market and the share of procurement dollars those firms received.

"We're very excited to be here," said Vernetta Mitchell, project director for MGT, the consulting firm that conducted the analysis, as she outlined the study's scope. The study examined county procurement from Jan. 1, 2016, through June 30, 2021, using a pooled spend of about $889,000,000.

Mitchell said the study's availability estimate for MWBE firms in the county's relevant market area is roughly 31'to 32 percent, while the county's utilization of MWBE firms during the study period was about 10.53 percent. "Disparity index is a simple calculation of the percentage of MWBE utilization divided by the percentage of MWBE availability times 100," she said, explaining how the index and statistical tests show substantial and statistically significant disparities for African American, Hispanic and total MBE categories in several procurement sectors.

Director Renee Burgess, who leads the county's Office of Small Business, described steps her office has begun taking, including expanding vendor outreach and hosting "coffee and conversations" to help businesses find bids, understand bonding and get certification assistance. Burgess said the office will use the portal to contact existing registrants and to tailor technical assistance.

Commissioners pressed administration and the consultant for specifics about accountability and implementation. "Who's gonna be responsible for ensuring that we meet these goals? Who's gonna hold people's feet to the fire?" Vice President Cooper asked, urging more frequent outreach and a stronger matching of small vendors with prime contractors.

The presentation broke down spend categories: construction represented roughly $378,000,000 of the study's pooled spend and showed particularly low MWBE utilization (MBE about 1.81 percent for construction and total MWBE about 4 percent in that sector). Commissioners noted that construction accounts for the largest share of county procurement and that raising inclusion in that sector is essential to lifting overall MWBE participation.

MGT recommended a mix of race- and gender-conscious remedies narrowly tailored to the measured disparities and race- and gender-neutral measures such as veteran-focused outreach, long-term procurement forecasts to give small firms 6 to 12 months to prepare bids, project-specific goals, enhanced subcontractor data collection and partnerships with local workforce and training providers.

Several commissioners and members of the public urged the county to require more subcontractor reporting from prime contractors and to add questions to bid documents so purchasing and the board can better track who performs contract work. Purchasing staff said construction bids already must list named subcontractors, but legal counsel and purchasing staff said disaggregated race and gender reporting is not currently required and that changes may require contract or ordinance adjustments.

Public commenters, including Newark NAACP president Deborah Smith Gregory, Hudson County officials and small-business owners, urged quick action. "We can't keep going on like this," Smith Gregory said, calling the county's current results "a travesty for our community." Marquise Abraham, director of the Hudson County Office of Business Opportunity, advised targeting construction and professional services and noted that many purchases made through co-ops limit direct contracting opportunities.

Small-business owners described practical barriers to bidding: Ugozi Achalike, a vice president of operations at a home-health agency, said solicitations are often posted as non-searchable PDFs, have short response windows and sometimes require a cash match she called impractical for small firms. County CIO Carl Hunt said IT can convert documents to searchable format but departments must provide files earlier in the process to allow time for conversion.

Commissioners concluded with calls for a board-administration working group, clearer KPIs and likely additional staffing and budget for the Office of Small Business to implement the report's recommendations. The meeting closed without a vote on policy changes; the final formal motion was to adjourn, which passed unanimously.

The county posted the full MGT report online and commissioners said they will review legal options and draft implementation steps, including better data collection and more aggressive community outreach to increase MWBE participation.