Boston mayor Michelle Wu is taking a page from the equity playbook of other major cities around the nation by proposing a pilot program aimed at bringing more minority- and women-owned businesses into the city's pool of goods and services vendors.
The proposal, known as a sheltered market program, would restrict bidding for six yet-to-be-determined contracts to disadvantaged businesses for the first time in Massachusetts, per the state Office of Administration and Finance.
Wu, who won endorsements from prominent elected officials of color because of her pledge to foster equity, said in a press release announcing the proposal she's "excited" for this attempt to create specific opportunities for disadvantaged businesses to contract with the city.
"As we recover from the pandemic, the City of Boston will use every dollar to make our city a place for everyone," Wu said in the statement.
Wu's pilot comes after Boston's disparity study showed it spending 11% of its $2.3 billion discretionary dollars with minority groups over a five-year period.
Asians accounted for 1.1% of that portion, Blacks were 0.4%, Hispanics were 0.8% and Native Americans were 0.1%, while white women accounted for 8.5%.
Those figures, the study found, equate to a "substantial underutilization" of available vendors, according to Wu administration officials.
Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Phoenix, Miami, San Diego and San Francisco have all formed similar programs, which set aside certain categories of contracts for certain categories of businesses, according to research from the non-profit Insight Center for Community Economic Development.
Michael Miller, Boston's director of strategic procurement, said at a recent hearing that the sheltered market program is "one of the strongest tools" the city can use to move closer to its goals, set by former Mayor Marty Walsh, of utilizing at least 15% woman-owned businesses and 10% minority-owned businesses of all contracts awarded in any fiscal year.
"We want to make sure that this is a strong policy that's going to stand up and have the impact that we want it to have," Miller said, outlining the proposal during a City Council hearing last week.
Other cities have launched disparity studies in order to undergird their equity efforts with facts, including Charlotte, N.C., Indianapolis, Ind., San Antonio, Texas and San Diego, Calif., all of which have launched studies within the last six years.
Boston's sheltered market program would only apply to goods and services contracts — including goods like office supplies and furniture and professional services like consulting or graphic design — even though the city's study showed Boston's discretionary spending on construction as having disparities across all demographic categories.
The city, officials said, is working to stand up separate efforts to diversify its spending within the construction industry.
If approved by the council Wednesday, the sheltered market program would still need written procedures and a public hearing before city officials file the final details of the program with the state's office of supplier diversity and the Secretary of State.
