WMBE Businesses and navigation of “The System”

By David Mark Greaves
New York City Black Chamber of Commerce held a conference in downtown Brooklyn hosted by Tosha Miller, Chamber CEO, to assist small businesses in understanding and navigating the city procurement process.

The attendees heard from high-powered speakers headed by Attorney General Letitia James, Comptroller Brad Lander, Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Kim Council, Charities Bureau Chief Karin Goldman, and keynote speaker New York City Comptroller Brad Landers.

Comptroller Landers spoke first, noting that the city has over $20 billion in contractor services annually. “Only 5% goes to WMBEs, less than 15% even of the targeted local law procurement that is supposed to be dedicated for WMBEs, and if you break those numbers down, the lion’s share is for businesses owned by White women and Asian men, and when you look specifically at Black-owned or Black woman-owned, you’re looking at the procurement rate of about 1%.”
His office has “proposed policies that would make that better,” such as the WMBE Small Procurement Threshold, which empowers a city agency to contract directly with a WMBE for services. Originally set at $150 thousand, it has grown to a $1.5 million top end.

While the 30% mandate to minority subcontractors is working on one side, “On the city’s big human services contracts, we cannot even see who gets the money,” rectifying that can “unlock literally billions of dollars in small contracts.”

Attorney General Letitia James said that “the numbers the comptroller just cited are abysmal” and “there are other cities and counties all across this nation that are far exceeding those numbers.” Her office “polices the market” for “deceptive business practices,” such as “businesses that are fronts for WMBEs.” Knowing that small businesses in the industry would suspect a front when they see one, she called on the audience to forward any evidence they have to her office for investigation.

Looking ahead to the incoming presidential administration, the attorney general spoke about what was coming. “There are allegations that the next administration will attack DEI, will attack WMBEs, will attack small business growth and all programs that have been established in a number of government agencies, federal agencies,” and she expects her office to be “very busy in responding to those attacks and in defending WMBEs.”

The Attorney General said that disparity Studies over the years have repeatedly identified the chasm between white males and WMBE-owned firms, a disparity that prevents the full use of WMBE businesses which are critical to the fair growth of the economy. “It represents good business to invest in WMBEs.”

James spoke of a previous meeting at the First Baptist Church of Crown Heights, where religious leaders were brought together to discuss the ramifications of church mergers due to decreased population and the need to build affordable and senior housing without being “duped.” She said the churches are not equipped to handle the teams that developers are able to deploy and come to her office “at the last minute to step in and stop the transaction. We have been successful on some occasions, and on other occasions, we have not.”
Deed theft is a major problem for homeowners across the state. And, of course, here in Brooklyn, “particularly in these brownstones which are worth millions, are being stolen, primarily from seniors who are cash poor but equity rich.”

The largest bureau in the Attorney General’s office is the Charities, headed by Karin Kunstler Goldman who gave an idea of the size of the nonprofit sector. “There are 116,000 nonprofits in New York State, they employ 1.4 million people or 17-18% of the State’s workforce, they generate $216 billion dollars in annual revenue, hold assets of $510 billion, and New York foundations donate almost $10 billion to charity.” Monitoring includes ensuring that any transfer of assets is proper and does not involve fraudulent behavior such as insider sales of property.

Chief Business Diversity Officer Michael Garner from the mayor’s office gave the keynote address. He began by speaking of the late Al Vann’s importance in mentoring the next generation, including himself, Letitia James, and Roger Green, and his dedication to creating opportunity for Black-owned businesses.

Proving himself to be a WMBE turnaround artist at the School Construction Authority and the MTA, bringing that agency from last in dollars paid to minority and women-owned firms of 97 agencies and authorities “From worst to first, in fourteen years.”

In his new position, Garner is implementing Mayor Eric Adams’s “laser-focused” mission to prioritize WMBE programs, currently at $6.4 billion in contracts to minority-owned businesses. Garner says the mayor believes in “driving equity to communities of color that have been shut out to achieve $25 billion (in contract) by 2026.”

Garner cited his experience in the Cuomo administration, saying the WMBE community was not disorganized but unorganized and in need of an organization that would pursue and lobby for their interests. When a complaint reaches the governor’s office, a phone call goes to the agency involved: “ Make this go away.” Garner says you must know who the political officeholders are, “and you need to have a relationship with them because, once again, your voice has to be heard.”

Garner spoke of historical “stuff” in the system that prevents the equitable distribution of taxpayer dollars. “Two years ago, we awarded $ 41.1 billion in procurement opportunities, $20 billion went to nonprofits,” and yet, “we cannot assign MWBE goals on nonprofit contracts.” He said that the results of a disparity study will be back in 30-60 days, and then the legislative proposal will be put before the city council. “It will be a fight because the nonprofit sector views it as an invasion of their sector, so we’re going to need a lot of voices when we go to the council to give the city the ability to assign WMBE goals on nonprofit contracts.”
Garner said the mayor’s team is filtering out the “noise” and staying on mission in their work for the city.
The program was sponsored by Philips Morris International.