Disparity Study Update

The Consultant shall provide written proposals for designing and conducting a disparity study to determine whether and, if so, the extent to which statistically significant disparities exist between the minority-owned-and-controlled and women-owned-and-controlled business enterprises in the City’s market area that are ready, willing and able to perform work on City contracts and the actual utilization of those firms during the study period as prime contractors and subcontractors on Supplies, Services, Construction, and Professional Services contracts. The study also should determine the existence and extent of any active or passive discrimination in relevant public or private markets and examine whether there is a causal relationship between measured discrimination and any observed disparities in availability and utilization. The Consultant will need to address how it will identify the relevant market area, conduct community engagement and outreach, collect and analyze all relevant data and anecdotal evidence, and prepare and present a final disparity report that disaggregates the information by contract type, contract size, prime and subcontract spend, ethnicity, and gender. The final report also will include recommendations for race-and-gender-neutral and race-and-gender-conscious remedies that satisfy the requirements of J.A. Croson v. City of Richmond and other relevant jurisprudence. An optional component is a Construction Workforce Study analyzing the workforce performing construction work on City projects.