TO: Mayor and Commissioners and CRA Board Members
FROM: Jeffrey L. Oris, CEcD, Assistant City Manager
THROUGH: Terrence R. Moore, ICMA-CM, City Manager
Renee A. Jadusingh, Esq., CRA Executive Director
DATE: March 11, 2025
Title
FINAL PRESENTATION AND DIRECTION REGARDING THE CITY OF DELRAY BEACH/DELRAY BEACH COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY DISPARITY STUDY
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Recommended Action:
Recommendation
The City Commission and CRA Boards are asked to receive a presentation on the City/CRA Disparity Study, determine if they wish to accept the report, and provide direction to staff as to what, if any, future action(s) the city would like to take to address the disparity presented.
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Background:
Starting around 2018, the City of Delray Beach began discussions regarding its “Keep it Local” policies and initiatives to promote local businesses and job opportunities. During this time, discussions related to a Disparity Study were also initiated. The purpose of such a study would be to determine whether or not a statistically significant disparity exists within the City’s award of contracts to minority and women owned enterprises.
At the May 14, 2019, CRA Board meeting, the CRA Board unanimously approved its support of the City in moving forward with its “Keep it Local” policies and initiatives and with conducting a Disparity Study.
Additionally, in 2019, Florida Statute Section 163.370(5) was updated to state that “[a] community redevelopment agency shall procure all commodities and services under the same purchasing processes and requirements that apply to the county or municipality that created the agency.”
Through Interlocal Agreements the CRA provides funding to the City for various projects, and with the 2019 updates to the Florida Statutes that required the CRA to follow the City's purchasing policies, it further underscored the need for CRA contracts to be included and reviewed as part of the Disparity Study.
Pursuant to the CRA Board’s support of the City’s Disparity Study, and following the updates to the Florida Statutes, at the December 10, 2019, CRA Board meeting, the CRA Board approved the CRA to provide twenty percent (20%) of the required funding for the City to conduct the Disparity Study. Since that time, the CRA and the City have engaged in multiple discussions regarding the Disparity Study.
In January 2023, the City entered into an agreement with Keen Independent Research, LLC, to produce a Disparity Study to determine and document whether there exists a disparity in the City's procurement of goods and services. The disparity reviewed was whether the City had contracted with minority- and woman-owned businesses in an equal percentage to the number of those firms that available and willing to work with/for the City compared to all businesses.
In Phase I of the project, the Utilization, Availability, and Disparity Analysis, Keen Independent spent a significant amount of time reviewing City procurements and contracts to determine the number of minority- and woman owned businesses the City has utilized (much of this had to be re-created as the City did not collect this data prior to this study). Additionally, Keen contacted most all registered minority- and woman-owned businesses in the identified marketplace from which city procures its goods and services which included the South Florida, Tri-County area comprised of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties. Some basic information indicating a disparity appeared to exist was presented formally to the City Commission at their September 10, 2023 meeting. At this time the City Commission provided consensus to continue with Phase II of the study which provides more detailed data that will enable the City to implement any recommended actions that may assist the City in reducing the disparity.
Phase II commenced in October of 2023 and consisted of further analysis of the information collected, a more precise calculation of the disparity, along with more formal recommendations as to how to reduce any disparity found. This phase also included a public meeting which was held on May 9, 2024. Approximately, 35 people attending the public meeting at the Delray Beach Golf Course. Representatives of Keen Independent presented via Zoom and were there to gather public input from minority- and woman-owned business as to their experiences in working with or trying to obtain work with local governments and particularly the City of Delray Beach. The group had a lively discussion that became more of a discussion as to the process of the Study. Questions were also raised as to the CRA's participation in the Study.
The community concern about the CRA's participation was to some extend assuaged by the statutory requirement that the CRA follow the procurement policies of the City, however, it was noted that CRA procurements were not a part of the Study and thus, on October 15, 2024, an amendment to the agreement with Keen Independent was executed to include additional data based on CRA procurements. Which has since been completed and incorporated into the Final Disparity Report.
In anticipation of the final report presentation, the CRA and City hosted another public meeting on January 29, 2025 in order to fully explain the purpose and potential outcomes of a Disparity Study. This meeting was also well attended and the recording of the meeting was viewed over 125 times in the first week it was available online.
Dr. Joseph Broad of Keen Independent Research will be in attendance at the March 11, 2025 joint meeting of the City Commission and CRA Board, Keen Independent to present Keen's final report including disparity findings and potential actions the City/CRA can take moving forward to reduce the found disparities.
City Attorney Review:
N/A
Funding Source/Financial Impact:
There is no cost associated with this presentation. Any actions the City Commission and CRA wish to take will have to be evaluated for further costs once they are determined.
Timing of Request:
N/A