Council Member Farías speaks in support of Intro 694

I would now like to turn it over to Councilmember Frias for an opening statement.

Good morning.

Thank you, Chair Ressler, members of the Committee on Contracts, for holding today's hearing on MWBE utilization in city contracting and for allowing me a moment to speak in support of my bill, Intro 694.

New York City has established utilization goals because we recognize that minority and women-owned businesses have historically been shut out of government contracting opportunities.

But when an agency repeatedly fails to meet those goals, we cannot continue relying on the same broad outreach and expect a different result.

Intro 694 responds by requiring agencies to focus their outreach on the specific MWBE categories in which they are falling short.

That means working with community-based organizations and the Office of Ethic and Community Media to reach businesses through trusted local networks and provide practical information about certification, procurement opportunities, and how to compete for agency contracts.

This bill would also require agency MWBE officers to monitor progress within those categories and report on how these targeted efforts are being implemented.

This creates a clear connection between the disparities an agency identifies, the corrective action it takes, and the results it produces.

We know there are qualified entrepreneurs across the city who are ready to do business with New York.

Too often, however, they are left to...

trying to navigate an unnecessarily complicated procurement system without the relationships, information, or institutional access enjoyed by larger and more established firms.

The responsibility cannot remain entirely on small businesses to find their way into the room.

When an agency consistently fails to reach a particular group of businesses,

The agency must be responsible for changing how it reaches them and continues to do so.

Intro 694 gives agencies a more focused way to close those gaps and gives the council a stronger basis for evaluating whether their improvement plans are producing actual results.

I'd like to thank Chair Ressler again for hearing this piece of legislation, and thanks to my colleagues who have joined me as co-sponsors.

I really look forward to today's testimony from the administration, as well as hearing from the public and continuing the work together to move Intro 694 forward.

Thank you, folks, and thank you, Chair.