City Council Work Session

Melvin Municipal Building

300 W. Washington Street

Greensboro, NC 27401

City of Greensboro

Meeting Minutes - Final

City Council Work Session

3:00 PM Council ChamberTuesday, April 3, 2018

I. Call To Order

This City Council Work Session of the City of Greensboro was called to order at 3:00 p.m. on the above date in the

Council Chamber of the Melvin Municipal Office Building with the following members present:

Mayor Nancy Vaughan, Mayor Pro-Tem Yvonne Johnson, Councilmembers Marikay Abuzuaiter, Sharon Hightower,

Nancy Hoffmann, Michelle Kennedy, Justin Outling, Tammi Thurm, and Goldie Wells.

Also present were City Manager Jim Westmoreland, City Attorney Tom Carruthers, and Deputy City Clerk Angela

R. Lord.

II. Presentations

1. ID 18-0089 Update on the M/WBE (Minority/Women and Business Enterprise)

Disparity Study - Griffin and Strong, PC

City Manager Westmoreland spoke to providing an update on the Minority /Women and Business Enterprise

(M/WBE) Disparity Study (Study) by Griffin and Strong, P.C. (G & S); and to the proposed next steps.

Mayor Vaughan explained the purpose of the meeting; and stated Council would take public comments during the

town hall meeting following the Work Session.

Assistant City Manager Barbara Harris provided the history for the M /WBE Program; regulations for updates; spoke

to the agreement for the current Study; and recognized G & S Chief Executive Officer Rodney Strong.

Mayor Vaughan left the meeting at 3:04 p.m. and returned at 3:05 p.m.

Councilmember Abuzuaiter inquired about when questions would be taken.

Mr. Strong requested Council hold their questions until the end of the presentation; spoke to the importance of the

information; and recognized G & S Project team (Project team) members in attendance.

Mr. Strong, Technical Advisor on Disparity Studies Dr. J. Vincent Eagan, Senior Director Michele Clark Jenkins and

Legal Division Attorney David Maher made a PowerPoint Presentation (PPP); outlined the firm's history; the

presentation overview; explained the definition of a Disparity Study; spoke to case law; identification of the minority

population; reviewed the Study objectives; statistical and technical approaches; the private sector analysis; and the

collection of anecdotal evidence. The Project team reviewed good faith effort regulations; contract goals; statistical

findings regarding sub and prime contractors; spoke to consistent good faith negotiations; referenced statistical

findings; compared firm availability and dollars spent with said firms; spoke to the geographically relevant market; a

predefined area; expanding outside the ten county guideline; reviewed the prime and subcontractor utilization

summary regarding construction, professional services, other services, and goods for a 24 county relevant market;

and highlighted the underutilization of M/WBE in all four work categories. The Project team outlined the data

collection process; a parity for contracts under $ 300,000; prime contracting spending versus prime percentages;

compared collected data to the previous Study; encouraged the utilization of M /WBE firms; observed successes

and advancements; and commended the M/WBE staff for their involvement and work in the program. The Project