Apopka Chamber Board calls for local and minority businesses to receive 10% bid preferences

For the past several weeks, Cate Manley has become a loyal pen pal to The Apopka Chief. Manley, the Apopka Area Chamber of Commerce CEO and President, has attempted to make her case... well... cases through letters to the editor in the weekly newspaper to change the recent investment/portfolio policy passed by the Apopka City Council in December and to implement a new policy that would increase local and minority bid preference opportunities from 3% to 10%.

Manley emailed the Apopka City Council and then read into the record a resolution approved by the Chamber Board at Wednesday's City Council meeting:

"The Apopka Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has voted to support and approve the following resolution request to the Mayor and City Commissioners of the City of Apopka;

Apopka Chamber of Commerce Board Resolution

Title: Request to City of Apopka to Increase Local Bid Preference Opportunities and Adopt A Small Business Minority Bid Preference Policy

Date: February 16, 2024

Whereas, small businesses play a crucial role in driving economic growth and development in the City of Apopka, Florida;

Whereas, the City of Apopka has a commitment to promoting the participation of small businesses in City projects, procurement, and purchasing;

Whereas, to facilitate the participation of local small businesses, the City has established a small business participation goal of ten percent (10%);

Whereas, the City of Apopka currently offers a local bid preference of three percent (3%) to small businesses;

Whereas, increasing the local bid preference opportunities from 3% to 10% would provide additional support and opportunities for small businesses;

Whereas, certified Minority, Women Business Enterprises (MWBE) by Orange County Florida, City of Orlando, Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, and/or the State of Florida Office of Supplier Diversity should be eligible to participate in small business programs;

Whereas, it is the responsibility of the selected vendor for the contract to achieve the established small business participation goal;

Whereas, reporting on small business participation and goal achievement may be required by vendors in the issuance of bids for proposed projects, procurement, or purchasing;

Now, therefore, be it resolved:

1. The Apopka Area Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Advocates of Central Florida hereby request that the City of Apopka increase the local bid preference opportunities from three percent (3%) to ten percent (10%) for small businesses.

2. The City of Apopka is urged to adopt the statement that small businesses are a major source of economic growth and development, including employment and taxable income.

3. The City of Apopka is encouraged to continue its commitment to the participation of small businesses in City projects, procurement, and purchasing.

4. The City of Apopka should recognize certified Minority, Women Business Enterprises (MWBE) by Orange County Florida, City of Orlando, Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, and/or the State of Florida Office of Supplier Diversity as eligible participants in small business programs.

5. The City of Apopka should require vendors to report on small business participation and goal achievement in the issuance of bids for proposed projects, procurement, or purchasing.

6. This resolution shall be effective immediately upon adoption.

We, the undersigned, hereby certify that the foregoing resolution was duly adopted by the Board of Directors of the Apopka Area Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Advocates of Central Florida via electronic consensus on February 16, 2024."

According to Manley, the 38-member board voted 36-0 in favor of the referendum, with Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore and one other member not voting.

"I wanted more information on how much other governments put for local preference," Moore told The Apopka Voice about her non-vote. "I want to know industry standards."

Commissioner Kyle Becker welcomed the discussion, although he wondered why Manley chose a letter-writing campaign over a direct discussion with the Council.

"I think it's worthy of us having targeted conversations on this because, again, we keep passing each other in the night when it comes to letters to the editors of local papers versus officially interacting with this board," he said. "I've never once gotten a direct request from your office or anybody from the chamber board related to having these types of conversations in a well-thought-out manner. To arbitrarily go from 3% to 10%... where did that come from?

So you have to be competitive," Manley said. "It does specify it has to be competitive pricing... it can't be a 10% higher amount that somebody's bidding. It's giving that preference... because the city of Apopka owns so many properties and has so many projects in place. It's a set aside... more of this is what we're driving after to get not only procurement but purchasing and bid, and the truth is you may not be that far off if you adopt that much of both bid, purchasing, and procurement. And that you have 3%... at least you have one. The major concern really is that there is no current minority preference at all in place. And federal regulations are 25%. Whenever you're using federal funds, you do have to adhere to that 25%."

But Becker did not see the carve-out for minority businesses in the Chamber's resolution.

"There's nothing in the resolution that would quantify what the benefit to minority-owned businesses would be as a result of that resolution. And we think quantifiable is the increase from 3% to 10% on the local preference bid policy."

"We're more concerned about the fact that if you can't stack both, because if you have a minority preference in your local and you're a local minority, then you should have a specific opportunity to be able to bid with both and have the preference over somebody who is more established that somebody brings from outside of the community that has not had an opportunity," Manley responded.

Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson thought it might be a good idea to have his finance director, Blanche Sherman, do research on other municipalities to see if Apopka could benefit from a change in policy, but Becker already had one example - Highlands County.

"Its policy basically says that if a local business is above no more than 15%, they will be considered the lowest bidder, but they have to accept the lowest bid price in order to get that project,"Becker said. "They still get the project. It's just their determination whether or not they're going to go to that lowest bid. So it's used as a proxy by which to select a local preference, not a city saying, 'Hey, I'm gonna arbitrarily spend 7% more on a project to favor a local small business, a single or a small subset.'

Becker then renewed his frustration that this policy was not discussed at the Council level so all ideas could be heard.

"So the point I'm trying to make is, again... I've set up here on other pieces of business and been accused of playing politics. And at this point, I don't care if I'm being accused of playing politics if what would be is the right outcome. My irritation, and I've said this in the past few minutes and with you [Manley] not in attendance, is that you keep writing to The Apopka Chief editor to talk about formal business within the city. Not once have you contacted me, or I can't speak for others, where anybody from your board of directors reached out to me to say, hey, we're thinking about passing this three to 10% policy? What are your concerns? Where do you think we have blind spots... or what have you? It's just never happened. We can continue to research on it. But I think we're miles away from having that sort of conversation."

Commissioner Nick Nesta, whom Manley has written critically about in those letters, was also open to the Chamber Board's referendum.

"Obviously, I've been named multiple times in these letters to the editor," he said. "And I appreciate that you have finally brought this to us as an option. And I think discussing it in more detail... seeing what other municipalities are doing as well... I think it's beneficial. I'm definitely open to this. And I think it's something we need to discuss, but it doesn't need to be politicized and muddied with other issues that are especially being used for politics. So, I think this is definitely something to look into and have discussions about. I appreciate that it's being presented to us officially and that something was sent to us last Friday."

Before moving on, Nelson directed Sherman to research what other municipalities are doing with local and minority bid preference opportunities, which will be discussed again at the March 20th meeting.