Procurement says automation, outreach and limited sanctions needed to close MFD gaps

Office of Procurement staff told the Government Operations committee the county has roughly 2,600 active contracts, that about 90% could be subject to the MFD program, and that tracking historically relied on manual checks. "We have been doing this kind of by hand and then are doing random check," Grace Dennell said, describing current practice and the need for automation.

Dennell outlined concrete steps procurement has used or is testing: preference points in RFP evaluation to reward proposers that include minority subcontractors, a newly redefined supplier-diversity engagement manager role to improve vendor outreach, monthly online open houses attracting 50–70 vendors, two annual procurement fairs, and a push to collect subcontractor data from prime contractors. On enforcement she said: "Some of the enforcement measures we can do is either withhold payment to the prime to make sure they, pay this out before we release the payment or, to the extreme we can terminate the contract," while also cautioning that withholding or termination must preserve continuity of services.

Committee members asked for a concrete month/year when an RFP for the next disparity study will be issued and for a briefing on progress toward an eProcurement suite ahead of budget deliberations. Procurement agreed to provide a written timeline for the RFP and to brief the committee on eProcurement before the next budget season.