Encouraging Diversity and Growth in Procuremet

Westerville Welcomes Minority-Owned Businesses for Contracts, Supplies

One of the first established goals of Westerville’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives included building upon Westerville’s database of suppliers, vendors and contractors owned in whole or part by an individual or group in a historically underrepresented or underserved population*. As a collaborative product of the DEI division of Westerville’s City Manager’s Office and the Department of Administrative Services, an online supplier management portal is available for subscription by eligible businesses.

“Encouraging Diversity and Growth in Procurement” expands Westerville’s abilities to reach eligible businesses, and include them in requests for bids and other public purchasing processes. It also provides a resource that departments can reference as they purchase day-to-day goods and services.

Building the database is something that takes intentionality, says Westerville DEI Director Jonathan Bentley.

“There has to be a commitment to improving supplier’s access to public dollars that is interactive,” he said. “That means that the supplier has to show interest and capability, and the government demonstrates access and accountability. Our model will take time to evolve, but we are going to establish relationships and remain purposeful about weaving more diversity into our procurement process.”

The economics of supplier diversity has an impact as well. According to research published by Proximo and cited in an MIT Sloan Management Magazine article, every $1 million in diverse supplier investment creates 10 jobs with salaries about $15,000 more than the U.S. median salary.

Westerville’s ongoing goals with the program are simple: develop the resources, watch them grow and show it’s working.

“The public purchasing process is designed to be open and transparent,” said Tom Patterson, Westerville Procurement Coordinator. “Our analytics show us, for instance, that staff’s commitment to fair and open competition in government contracts yielded more than $3 million in Citywide savings last year. This process gives us another tool for Westerville to be good stewards of the public’s dollar.”

Stay up-to-date about DEI initiatives in the City. Visit www.westerville.org.dei.

*CLASSIFICATIONS FOR ELIGIBLE BUSINESSES

Minority-owned Business Enterprises (MBE)

Woman-owned Business Enterprises (WBE)

Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDB)

Veteran-owned Businesses (VBE)