One Hattiesburg City Council member pushed forward a system of including certified minority-owned companies in city, state, and federal business through the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program.
Ward 5 Councilman Nicholas Brown started discussions with Mayor Toby Barker over the program, and Brown educated the City Council on the program during a recent Monday work session.
Ward 5 Councilman Nicholas Brown
"We have companies I do a lot of work like with, now that they've gotten ahead over the years," Brown said. "I just want to put something together with a policy in place with the help of my colleagues."
Barker said DBEs could spur growth locally through minority-owned businesses.
"The hallmark of this administration and the City Council is trying to create ladders of opportunities for employees, for neighborhoods and things like that," he said. "Hattiesburg is such a dynamic place with a lot of money for infrastructure, public safety facilities, and other public areas. We want to extend that by trying to make sure that everyone has access to a seat at the table, and that is a good thing."
Barker said the number of current DBEs is small.
"We know right now that only two folks that we do business with are certified through the (Unified Certification Process) and only 200 in the state that are certified in that process," he said.
Brown said he was aware of more companies that would qualify.
"I know through the research of the administration that companies are qualified for the low rate right now," he said. "There's an opportunity to reach out to those that they can be qualified. This is a matter of getting the information to them to let them know what they need to do to get qualified and try to get them all at the table."
Brown said he hopes to have something in place locally to improve the status of DBEs.
"I want to have more have more conversation and dialogue with the mayor as well as all the council members with different contractors and business owners on the same page," he said. "Hopefully, in the near future, we can put something in place where certain businesses would get a percentage as a qualified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise. So, it's just a matter of time and dialogue."
Barker said the first step is recognizing businesses that qualify and getting them certified.
"So, the first thing we have to do is try to encourage a woman or a minority business to go through the process," he said.
"We're going to look at creating a local program as well. Also, (we would) address our purchasing procedures in terms of how the city spends its money – whether we're going to put a percentage on the money that we spend being steered toward DBEs or setting goals for how we're going to make these investments. I think all those things work toward a good policy."