ELLICOTT CITY, MD – Howard County Executive Calvin Ball today released the results of the County’s first-ever Disparity Study. Launched in 2023, the Study looked to identify any opportunity gaps in Howard County Government’s procurement process with minority-owned, woman-owned, and disabled-owned businesses.
Here in Howard County, we are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. Through the results of this Disparity Study, we hope to identify any gaps and improve our efforts to encourage the participation of minority, woman-owned, and disabled-owned businesses in our current contracting practices and business assistance programs.
The County hired MGT, a national public sector management consulting and technology services firm known to have conducted more unchallenged disparity studies than any other firm in the country, to conduct the Disparity Study. The objective of the Study was to determine whether there exists a discrepancy between the availability of ready, willing, and able minority- and woman-owned businesses prepared to undertake contracts in: (1) Construction Services, (2) Professional Services, (3) Architecture and Engineering, (4) Other Services, and (5) Goods and Equipment, and the number of these businesses actually participating in contracts with the County. The Study focused on a geographical marketplace consisting of 14 counties in Maryland. The County’s Equal Business Opportunity program, which is not restricted to a geographical marketplace, has exceeded the 20% utilization goal for the past eight fiscal years.
For the Study, MGT reviewed procurement activity from July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2023. MGT looked at the County’s contracting procedures to determine whether any barriers or discrimination exist, as well as analyzed other factors that could create challenges for minority, women, and disabled-owned businesses to effectively compete for County contracts and procurement opportunities.
The Study found that during the aforementioned timeframe, Unclassified Firms were utilized at higher rates than their Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) counterparts. The County’s utilization with M/WBE firms was 9.19 percent while Unclassified Firms totaled 90.81 percent. MBE utilization represented 5.46 percent of the total dollars analyzed. The highest utilization rates among individual M/WBE classifications included Nonminority Women firms accounting for 3.73 percent of dollars paid and Hispanic American firms accounting for 2.43 percent of dollars paid. Furthermore, the Study found that Disabled-Owned Business Enterprises (DBE) utilization amounted to $3,078,937 or 0.22 percent of total payments analyzed.
The Study’s overall results show substantial disparities between total M/WBE utilization and availability in all five procurement categories. Moreover, the Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics analysis shows consistent underutilization of M/WBE firms relative to their availability in the marketplace. These results provide evidence that disparities exist in the broader private sector, thus supporting the need for the County to maintain remedies to avoid passive participation in discrimination, irrespective of circumstances in the public sector.
To improve its procurement process, MGT recommends the County:
- Expand race- and gender-neutral initiatives, specifically its local business initiative and Veteran-Owned Business Enterprise Program, to include Small Business Enterprise (SBE) firms as part of their outreach and engagement for procurement opportunities and to incorporate contract specific goals in procurements where these initiatives are enacted.
- Expand and enhance data collection to effectively monitor and improve the County’s business inclusion program. This includes incorporating and regulating a process to collect all subcontractor data, currently not being tracked, including M/WBE, non-minority, Local Business Enterprise (LBE), DBE, SBE, etc. for comprehensive analysis as part of the contract with vendors.
- Business outreach and engagement to clarify the County’s procurement process. The County should work with professional organizations to facilitate business growth workshops to improve public understanding of the procurement process. Additionally, better education on the procurement process should be a frequent workshop offered by the County.
- Narrow tailoring of the County’s EBO Program to specifically address the identified disparity in accordance with guidance from case law regarding race- and gender-based procurement programs.
- The hiring of more Equal Business Opportunity (EBO) Program Staff within the County’s Office of Procurement and Contract Administration as the presence of more Business Relations and Compliance personnel is essential for extending contract compliance, goal setting, and outreach to the business community. Additional staff and a more enhanced system support will allow the Office to more effectively manage the growing workload and complexity of tasks associated with economic growth of minority, women, and disabled-owned businesses.
- Establishing EBO Program Liaisons in County agencies and departments to promote fair procurement practices, ensure compliance with EBO goals, and enhance collaboration between the central EBO office and various agencies.
- Establish and implement contract specific goals to assist the County in addressing identified disparities found in the Study. Project-specific subcontracting goals should be established where there is availability for specific scopes of work across all industry categories, taking into account the project estimated cost and historical utilization of M/WBE on identical or similar projects.
- Aspirational M/WBE goals. The County currently has a 20 percent EBO aspirational goal. Estimates of M/WBE availability in the County’s market area should provide the starting point for countywide annual aspirational goals for contracting across all industry categories.
Ball included funding in his Fiscal Year 2024 Operating Budget to conduct the Study.
When Ball took office in December 2018, only 100 firms were certified through the County’s Office of Procurement and Contract Administration’s Local Business Initiative. This initiative encouraged Howard County Government departments and agencies to select and prioritize local businesses when purchasing goods or services that are $9,999 or less. Today, there are more than 430 certified firms, with nearly $34.9 million dollars spent to date in FY26 with certified local businesses.