The San Diego Community College District is committed to increasing the participation of small businesses and minority-owned businesses in its constructions projects.

This is why it is holding its 5th annual Contractor Networking and Outreach event on Friday, August 17th, from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the new Miramar College Library/Learning Resource Center.

The event is bringing together general contractors and construction management firms with small and historically underutilized businesses in a single location to build relationships and learn about upcoming opportunities with SDC-CD’s $1.555 billion Propositions S and N construction bond program.

The program is providing for new construction, major renovations, infrastructure projects, ADA enhancements, parking, and public safety improvements at City, Mesa and Miramar Colleges, and six Continuing Education locations.

The event is very specifically targeting minority, disadvantaged, woman-owned and disabled veteran-owned businesses, in hopes of helping these underutilized firms build relationships with some of the community’s largest builders.

“We’re definitely seeing an uptick in the number of minority firms getting contracts for both professional services, and construction services,” said Ursula Kroemer, the district’s outreach coordinator.

Minority businesses account for more than $64 million in construction contracts, she said.

“This is the result of outreach efforts and the commitments from general contractors to do what it takes to promote participation of small firms in the bidding pool,” Kroemer said. “I also think small businesses are becoming much more familiar with how to bid and perform public works projects like ours – so they end up being the successful low bidder more and more frequently.”

For the majority of its future construction projects, the District is utilizing the project delivery method known Design/Build, where the contractor and architect form a single entity hired by the District to complete a project.

As part of the Requests for Proposal issued for future projects, the Design/Build proposal teams must submit a Subcontracting Participation Plan, worth 10% of the overall proposal. These plans outline how the proposal teams will utilize subcontractors certified as a Small Business Enterprise (SBE), Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE), Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), Woman Business Enterprise (WBE) or Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) on the project.

The District reports continued growth among minority and disadvantaged firms getting contracts for both professional services and construction services. Sixty-five percent of all of the contracts for consultants and professional service providers are going to S/D/M/W/DVBE firms; MBE firms have the second highest number of contracts among these subsets, with contracts worth nearly $23 million. Minority businesses also account for more than $64 million in construction contracts.

“In the latest Subcontracting Plan, there are specific points allocated for the use of M/W/D/DVBE firms for 10% or more of the overall subcontracting value, in order to incentivize proposal teams from using underutilized firms beyond readily-available SBEs,” Kroemer said. “This provides a real opportunity for the large builders to invest in the local workforce and promote disadvantaged businesses.”

The event is free to certified S/D/M/W/DVBE firms but registration is required: http://bit.ly/networkoutreach. Firms who do not yet have a small business certification but are in the process of obtaining one are also encouraged to attend but should complete and submit the District’s Certification Verification Form ahead of time, available at http://public.sdccdprops-n.com/contractors/contractorsdoc/sdccd certificationform.pdf