 Columbia Office of Business Opportunities. We are so excited that you are here today to talk to us or talk with us about the Columbia Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. Right now I have our staff on it. Staff could just introduce yourself really quickly. We can start with you Brett, because you're at the top of my screen. Yes ma'am. My name is Brett Whiting. I'm the loan officer here in the OBO. Would you go to Tanya? Do you say Tanya or Latanya? Tanya. Tanya, okay. Good morning everyone. I'm Tanya. I'm putting you very with the Office of Business Opportunities. All right Latanya. Good morning everyone. My name is Latanya Jeremy, Program Compliance Specialist with the Office of Business Opportunities. Hey Kalina. Good morning everyone. My name is Kalina Kenyar, Program Coordinator with the City of Columbia's Office of Business Opportunities. Let's see Karla. Good morning everyone. My name is Karla Eichelberger and I'm the Administrative Specialist here at the Office of Business Opportunities. Thank you so much and I miss anyone on the staff. Hey Melissa. Hi this is Melissa Lindler. I'm the Director for the Office of Business Opportunities. I just want to thank everyone for being here and thank the staff for getting this together. We're excited that you are interested in this program but we're even we will be even more excited if you participate as well. Thank you. Thank you so much Melissa. So I'm going to just we've had our staff introduce themselves since we're going to talk about our CDBE program. Our compliance staff is listed on here Latanya and Kalina. So if you have any questions about the approval process these are the individuals that will be able to assist you with making sure that you get registered with our Columbia Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. In our office we also have our other compliance programs. They include our local business enterprise reference policy as well as our mentor protege program and our Columbia Disadvantaged Business Enterprise which will be the focus of our discussion today. Special thanks on the call. We have our Columbia Water Team. Also our Department of Procurement and Contracts will provide a brief overview of their involvement with the process as well as their our EBIT system. With the changes that we've made to our program we've also had a lot of involvement from our city attorney's office as well as our mayor, city council, our city manager and our assistant city manager Gentry as well as our assistant city manager Clint Shealy. Please make sure you stay on mute during the call until we get to the question portion and you can add those in the chat and Kalina's already put that that you can add those questions in the chat and we will answer your questions throughout the presentation today. Also this will be recorded so you will be able to view it later as long as you registered. If you did not register if you can please give us your email in the chat and we will make sure that you receive a recording of the presentation today. So first I want to just start off by the purpose of the program and it is to ensure that CDBEs have an equitable opportunity to compete for subcontracts. This program was adopted by our city council in December of 2016 and then amended in March of 2021 and it is a living document so as we continue to administer the program we will acknowledge if changes need to be made and make those changes accordingly. So the first question you may ask hopefully a lot of you are already CDBEs but if you are not a CDBE is a certified socially and or economically disadvantaged business enterprise that has an office located within the Columbia Orange Park Newberry combined statistical area at a minimum of one year so that means you must be located within these counties and I'll provide a map listing all those counties in just a moment. Also you must complete the CDBE application and that is available on our website and we'll put that in the chat so that you can just click on that application it's a fillable document so it's very easy to complete and we typically process that application within three business days once it's completed so it's very important that you provide all aspects of that application so that we can make sure we can get it completed and approved as quickly as possible. So if you are a Columbia Disadvantaged Business Enterprise that means that you have a certification and what we provided here is just a list of certifications that we accept in our office it's not all inclusive so if you are aware of certifications you can contact our office and we can discuss if we can accept those certifications but the ones that we primarily see are for an SDOT, SCDOT, SBA, the SMVCC, also Rebank and MSBC as well and then we have some other certifications from SBA that we accept but like I said if there's another certification that we're not aware of we can definitely look at that and as long as it's an accredited certification we can accept. So the counties that are within the CDBE area include Saluda, Kershaw, Calhoun, Orangeburg, Fairfield, Richland, Lexington and Newberry. Again you must be located in those locations at least one year and you just have to have an office there so if for anyone that's also an LBE or LBE requires that you be headquartered in one of those counties but for CDBE you just have to have an office location within those eight counties and then you must also be socially and economically disadvantaged so here's a definition of socially disadvantaged and economically disadvantaged and if you have those certifications then that means you do need that criteria. So our project goals for a project to be designated as a CDBE the project estimated cost must be at least $200,000 for us to put a goal in there and then the goal is based on the relative availability of subcontractors and I will go over what that methodology looks like for us to determine relative availability. Our CDBE program does not apply to our mentor project and CDBE goals can only be met utilizing CDBEs and DBE subcontractors. So one of the questions that we often get is can a DBE-prime contractor be counted towards the CDBE goal and the answer is no. The intent of the program is to encourage the utilization of our DBE and CDBE subcontractors so even a DBE-prime contractor must still subcontract to the minimum goals set for a CDBE participation. So I want to take some time right now if anyone has any questions on how to become a CDBE before we get into the actual guidelines associated with our CDBE program. So does anyone have any questions on becoming a CDBE? You can unmute or you can put your question in the chat. Hopefully everyone's awake. Okay I would say some of the common questions we may get is so primarily our CDBE projects are water sewer. We have had some with our other departments but someone may say well I don't do water sewer should I still apply to be a CDBE and the answer is yes for a couple of reasons. Sometimes these water and sewer projects include subcontracting areas that might not be typical of water and sewer. So you want to make sure that you're on the list for that. Additionally we may look at our CDBE list to help our different departments identify DBE contractors in various different areas. So I would encourage anyone while our priority for this program is water sewer there may be opportunities for you to participate in other projects and so it's important to at least get your name on the list. I got a question in the chat. One question just came from Merlene and she wanted to know the CDBE work with veterans and we do we have I think you have to be notified as a service disabled veteran on business in order to receive your receive a CDBE and also you have to be located in the eight counties TSA. So yes we do work with veterans so you just have to make sure that you have to be certified not stating that you were a veteran but you have to be certified as a veteran owned or service disabled veteran on their business. Anything else Kalima? That is all for right now. Okay as I said if you have any questions if we can continue with the presentation please feel free to put those in the chat. So we did undergo several changes this year with our CDBE program but there are a lot of things that did not. Aisha I'm not seeing the presentation can everyone else see the presentation. Okay thank you. Thank you Alyssa. So some of the things that have not changed the city will continue to ensure that CDBEs have equitable opportunities to compete for contracts and subcontracts. Also the definition of our. Sorry it keeps it keeps going in and out for some reason. Hopefully it won't happen again but I'm sorry keep going. Okay also our certified DBEs located within the eight counties TSA for one year may be registered with CDBEs so that's another there's no change there as well and then as I mentioned the $200,000 projects are where we will determine if we need to assign a goal and then the role of our good faith efforts committee has not changed as well. We can go over in detail exactly what that good faith efforts committee entails and what they're responsible for. Some other things that have not changed will continue to ensure equitable opportunities so in doing that we make sure that we arrange bid solicitations and times for the submission of the bid specifications to ensure equitable participation will also break down larger contracts into smaller contracts when possible to include the participation of our smaller businesses. We want to make sure that they have an opportunity to participate in our procurement so when possible we'll try to break down those projects in the smaller opportunities. We'll also provide specifications in a timely manner so we can make sure that respondents are able to respond to solicitations and they have adequate time to do so and they will also provide technical assistance to our CDBEs so that's very important for our office is one of our main focuses is to make sure that we advocate for our small businesses so if there is a business on the call that doesn't know where to start or maybe they're thinking about even getting into the water and sewer industry and they want some guidance we'd be happy to sit down and talk to you about how to move forward and now what certifications you may need to get what type of training opportunities are available so just remember that we are a resource for our all of our businesses and then we'll hold seminars and workshops such as these to acquaint the business community with the requirements and the scope of city procurement activity. We always encourage our businesses even if they're not specifically planning to bid on a project to please attend any of the pre-bids or pre-solicitation meetings so that they are aware of the process to respond to a procurement opportunity. Our non-discrimination contracting policy I won't read this entire thing but the gist of it is we want to ensure that there is no discrimination whether it be entirely with employees and applicants for employment or whether it be with our procurement opportunities and we want to make sure that the contractors incorporate those for the provisions of the non-discrimination contracting policy and also contracts with the service work so the city will ensure that we don't discriminate but we also that goes out to our contractors as well we want to ensure that there is no discrimination and how they are involved in our procurements and in our contracts. So meeting the goal one of the main things is the direct outreach so our office also makes sure that we reach out to our CDBEs when opportunities come up but we expect our prime contractors to do the same. So we have a CDBE list that can be found on our website to identify all of those businesses that have already been designated as CDBEs and this list is updated on a regular basis so if there's someone on the call right now then it's not a CDBE can still be added to that list you just have to submit your application with that one pager and provide your supporting documentation so that you can be added to that list and then we provide those that list to our prime contractors so they can utilize that to meet the requirements of our CDBE program. We have started a tiered approach to meeting the goal. Tier one is that you must utilize a CDBE within the Columbia Orangeburg and Newberry CSA. Again you can use that directory it's now on our website you can also email that to you. Tier two is the utilization of certified DBEs within the Columbia Orangeburg CSA. So we as I stated before we use certifications from DOT and SMBC as well as the other certifying agencies. So if they have not gone through the process of becoming a CDBE but they are certified um that is where tier two comes so and then after that is tier three and that's the utilization of a certified DBE within the state of South Carolina. So the intent is for you to first look at our CDBEs then go to tier two for DBEs that are located within the eight counties maybe they're just having going through the application process and then tier three is DBEs that were already in the state of South Carolina in any county not just limited to our eight. So that is what the tiered approach and that is something new for the program so if anyone has any questions about that we'd be happy to answer but we're just trying to expand the opportunities for our DBEs through this tiered approach. With the understanding that some projects are specialized so we might not have a DBE located within the eight county region that can perform those functions so we've expanded that net so that prime contractors can look at other DBEs that may be outside of the eight county region. Next in meeting the goal in an effort to establish relationships with prospective authors and meet the requirements they should attend all pre-biz and pre-solicitations as well as outreach events. Our office has held outreach events as an opportunity for those subcontractors to meet with the larger prime contractors that are planning to bid on a project so it's very important that when an outreach event is announced that a CDBE attends those meetings it's a great networking opportunity not just to meet the requirements of our program but it's a great networking opportunity for you to potentially establish a relationship with a prime contractor for other opportunities that exist. I think most prime contractors would say they can't do everything themselves they do depend on their subcontractors so we just want to help make that networking that connection possible through our outreach events. Offers are also encouraged to begin the solicitation to CDBE from immediately following the pre-bid and pre-solicitation so for anyone that's not familiar with maybe some of the procurement language when we use the work offers that means someone who's planning to submit a bid or respond to a solicitation those are who we're talking about the offers it's the prime contract whoever that's going to be that our prime consultant is offered in this situation and then the CDBE goal can only be met by using CDBE contract because I think we stress that because it's a question we often get the intent is for the prime contractors to look for opportunities to help those smaller companies to be included in the procurement process so as I stated before a DBE prime contractor is still required even a CDBE prime contractor is still required to subcontract to CDBE and DBE a project is designated as a CDBE project again offerings the CDBE does not count towards the DBE goal requiring place to apply. OBO will use the methodology below in calculating subcontracting goals um it is a process so we don't just arbitrarily come up with these goals um there is an actual calculation I'm sure what's Hanya and Kalina will will um stress this it is a it is a process it's a very strenuous process um that we don't take lightly so what we do is we have to determine who is ready, willing, and able um that's the DBE in our market area utilizing like I said our EBIT, SCBOT, SMBCC we use all these databases to determine who is ready, willing, and able as a DBE and we'll go over the EBIT process shortly so if anyone is not registered we'll make sure that you have that information and then we'll look at how many um ready, willing, and able firms in the market area through the census data and then we'll take the number of DBE firms divided by the number of all firms and that will give us a face figure for relative availability and then I think another important thing is the weight so the weight is determined about the proportion of dollars spent within each industry so what happens when you take all that calculation into account the percentage is more heavily influenced by the availability in the industries where more dollars are spent so that is how the calculation is determined we look at available DBEs we look at all of the available contractors and then there's a weight assigned based on how much of the project dollars will be spent in that specific subcontracting area the final goal may require adjustments to take into account previous projects and also information from our disparity study which currently this is we have a disparity study um underway which we're very excited about to determine if any changes need to be made with how we um implement the different programs and services that we provide at the city and also any other data affecting the CBE participation so we really want to try to be mindful of um maybe past projects and what we were what we saw um like I said there's a specialized project we want to take that into account when determining the goal so um it really is a process before we establish a goal on a project also the cost of equipment purchased or leased by CDBD from a contract that does not count for DBE credit we want to make sure that our CDBEs and DBEs are not being a pass through we really want these contractors to be performing work to increase the capacity that they have within that whatever field they're working in um so that's an important thing to note so we have any questions on updates to the CDB program guidelines I'm gonna take a minute and see if I can get that a little more clear Aisha we had um maybe just one two quick well one question in the chat but it wasn't regarding the CDBE it was regarding the menoprotege program but if there's anyone that is interested in the menoprotege program we're not going to be talking about that today but if you have any questions or you'd like to learn more about the menoprotege program I will provide the link in the chat but you can also contact our office at 803-545-3950 if you have any questions regarding the menoprotege program and we have a couple people that have put their email addresses in the chat because they would like to receive a copy of the presentation later oh and we just got one question um do you assist with helping DBE firms with hiring employees um so not specifically but if you have we would love to talk to you and if you could tell us what areas you're interested in we may have someone in our network so we can connect you with we have a lot of community partners that we work with um and we may be able to assist you with that you can give us some more information about what type of business you have um you never know what type of connection we can make so we'd be happy to talk about that and there was another question um had a question regarding home health care businesses Aisha if you could clarify that one for me for us please what was the question if home health care businesses could be considered as a CBBE you could um now for these particular projects like you said the bulk of them are Columbia water I think we may have some within parts in red um I would encourage you to go ahead and get that it's an easy process and like I said we we um we will use that list for other opportunities sometimes we have we might have a private firm contact doesn't ask us can you have a cdbe in this particular area and we could share with them our directory um so I would be happy to discuss that with you as well and we have some people that provided their emails and contact numbers to um contact them regarding I'm going to guess this is the presentation most of them but we do have one and thank you Jasmine and Aziz for providing your information on your adult trucking company and we'll be reaching out to you soon and that's great and Jazzy so thank you for doing that Jasmine because I do want to make a comment so typically for our workshops we are in person obviously we are not right now due to COVID we want to make sure everyone stays safe but I think it's a great idea to add your email in the chat and possibly make a connection there may be a opportunity for some of you to work together and I love that idea so please feel free to put your information in the chat and um hopefully make a connection it's great anything else Kalina so we're going to go on to um our letter as Miss um Miss Kehoe has a question oh Aisha Aisha excuse me um Miss Kehoe has a question Kalina can you read that question to Aisha yes I can go back to that question I'm sorry okay um from Miss Kehoe it says I am currently working with another water sewer department in the Midlands doing behavioral interviewing techniques and helping them hire a high level job position how as a DBE can I help City of Columbia clients on hiring or interview hiring interview recruitment process thank you thank you Alicia yeah we can definitely make that connection um that's great that uh you are able to assist with um hiring so we can definitely as we've seen someone is interested in what opportunities may be available to assist with hiring we know that's a major issue right now is finding good um employees so uh we will make that connection with you and um any company that may be interested in assisting all right we're receiving your assistance and we just got another question um and Frederick Marshall thank you for putting that information in there um that you're looking for hydro seating erosion control work we will reach out to you and I think you already list are on our list but we'll reach out to you um from early in it how much of an effort is placed on outreach of CDBE in rural areas of the county yes so that is very important to us and what we have um talked about doing is maybe doing maybe something similar to like a traveling tour so that we can go out to some of all of our eight counties um and talk and maybe go to their chamber of commerce or other wherever they those businesses um network whether there's a contract use association in the eight county region uh we would like to come and speak um to those chambers or those contracting associations also when possible our office also goes to trade shows as well to look at opportunities for us to network and they're interested in doing the type of work that we procure um if there are any other suggestions we would love to receive those if there are any other associations or um networking opportunities in the rural areas we love to know those so we can come out of course that kind of kind of stopped lately due to COVID but we hope to to resume that soon um as soon as we can go back out but yeah definitely share any information I see the central Midlands Council of Government yeah exactly so that's a great opportunity for us to network with them and see what opportunities they have to do something like a traveling tour to some of the rural areas so that they can become aware of the opportunities that exist because exactly we definitely want to make sure that they know what we have going on here at the city and what opportunities exist and thanks to everybody who's kind of putting their email information in the chat and just to remind you that if you registered for today's webinar we will send you a copy of today's presentation along with the survey and a link to today's our YouTube channel because it's reported now on YouTube but if you did not register please put your email information into in our chat and we will send that information to you today thank you Collina great questions everyone next I want to just talk a little bit more about our good faith efforts so the contractor should exercise all necessary and reasonable steps to ensure the CDBEs perform services or provide materials on contracts an amount that meets or exceeds the CDBE contract goal and that is so important and I'm going to explain why so you will be required to submit a letter of CDBE commitment I'm going to show you exactly what that looks like and if you're going to be below 15 50 percent of the goal you must submit all of your GFE documentation and I'm going to go over that list so if you are above 50 percent or you meet the goal you do not have to submit the GFE documentation so it's very important it's ideal that our prime contractors meet the goal like I said we go through a very specific calculation process to determine that goal and make sure it's reasonable so the intent is that everyone at least be at 50 percent but honestly the goal is that to where it should be met um exactly make sure um make sure I share my screen again hi Aisha why you're doing that I just want to reiterate something that you just said and about the goal being that um if uh prime continuously bids on a CDBE project and they do not meet the goal um then we will look into that we will audit your good faith efforts to make sure you know that you're doing what you're supposed to do in order you know to make every opportunity possible for you to meet that goal so even though you do not have to provide your good faith effort documentation if you meet at least 50 percent if you continuously just meet 50 percent then we will audit you and I want to say the threshold is three so if you bid on three uh projects within a calendar year and you have not met the goal then we will audit your good faith effort documentation so that's why it's very very important for you to maintain that documentation even though it's not required at the time of submittal for your sc sp thank you thank you Melissa um and yes again as we go on over the tiered approach we will look at that in your dfp documentation to make sure that you go into those three different tiers um in determining how much um of the goal that you meet here is a list of all the items included in the good faith efforts checklist and as we if reiterated again and again the prime contractor meets um the goal at least 50 percent then they are not required to submit this information um but you the good faith efforts includes the dfp checklist cover sheet the attendance at the median outreach event also broad-based advertisement to make sure that you advertise that these opportunities were available and then um written our digital notice the cdbe subcontractors so as I stated we'll give you the list of cdbe and then you need to send listen most of the time these days everyone sends an email it used to be most most of those were actually written letter to type letters that was sent via mail but um an email is accepted also following up with the initial solicitation so once you make the subcontractors aware of these opportunities did you follow up to see if they were interested um did you were you responding to any questions they had so we really want to see that you made an effort to reach out to these subcontractors and then request for assistance you have a list of agencies that can help you with recruitment or finding opportunities for dbps and did you reach out to them and we'll want to see proof of that and then there's the participation long that's required that you submit um during the csp period we'll go over and then utilizing the certified dbps contractor so that is the intent of the whole process is that you are actually planning to utilize the cdbe contact with that it's not enough to just say we reached out I've done enough you actually need to utilize this so the prompts have to maintain and keep dfb documentation for a minimum of three years on cdbe contracts and like I said before the prompts can include digital hard print advertisement and the goal in the past it was just print so we've added that digital is um allowed now and then the city reserves the right to audit gfb paperwork at any time as melissa mentioned offers that repeatedly fell to meet the cdbe utilization goal this on a project will be audited um so it's very important that you maintain those that documentation and then the gfb laws are found in the appendices of the guidelines and we'll make sure that everyone has a copy of that link i'm also included in the email after webinar today so you can just click on that you have access to the guidelines and then the gfb committee will be reviewing all the gfb documentation for offers who do do not meet the goal at 50 percent or more so again we stress that you don't have to go through this process if you at least meet the goal at 50 percent it would be wonderful if you can exceed the goal we think that there are other opportunities based on our calculation that's the minimum goal but it would be wonderful um if someone would meet or exceed the goal that's great that's great for for our city and great for our projects when we make sure that we're inclusive the checklist must accompany the gfb documentation it's on appendix theme of the guidelines the gfb committee reviews the gfb stands for good faith efforts and this is the committee that will review the documentation that is submitted for those that fail to meet at least 50 percent of the cbd goal so for example the goal was 20 percent and someone responded they were only to do eight percent they would have to submit the gfb documentation and we then we will have to determine did you actually meet the good faith efforts before you can move forward in the procurement process so the committee consists of representatives from our office office of opportunities and the relevant city department so if it's a columbia water project we have a columbia water representative arts and recreation um project we would have someone from that department um so that's what we need my relevant city department and what that committee will do is review the information that is submitted to make sure that um you went through the process of making those cdbe contractors or subcontracting opportunities available to a broad base of willing and available cdbe cdbe and other certified minority business enterprise is based on the information outlined in the guide so that is the purpose of that gfb committee so make sure that you did what is required of there is a general administrative review committee um known as the art and then all appeals shall be escalated to the administrative or the consideration so if there is some type of discrepancy or disagreement on the result of the gfe committee um then you may request an administrative review and that must be submitted to a purchasing agent within three business days acting with dean non-compliance so non-compliant compliant means that um the gfe committee determines you did not go through the proper process you did not meet the requirements of the good faith efforts and so you are dean non-compliant and cannot move forward with the procurement process um and then the art shall review the appeal within five business days so any appeal denied by the art shall result and the agreed offer of being as non-responsive and cannot move forward in the process the audit of the good faith efforts Melissa talked about this again we reserve the right to audit that paperwork at any time that we need necessary if you repeatedly fail to meet or exceed the specified cdbe goal you will be audited and audited findings may result in the suspension of offer participation in future cdbe project projects um again after um you have a document to go three times and then we put in the fiscal year of july 1st through june 30th then um we'll review that or we will perform an audit on your gfe paperwork does anyone have any questions about the good faith efforts i know that was a lot of information great so that means it's very very clear all right so at this point i would like to turn it over to our women's world procurement and contracts team to go over the invitation for big steps and i believe that is very important thank you aisha um what i want to do is go over the procurement process um just to kind of give you all a broad overview and i'll be available to answer any questions if anyone has any questions as well these first two slides are basically just uh it's kind of a one slide shows all the steps in the procurement process but if we can move to slide 32 i actually will start with step one on slide 32 and it'll go through each step and i'll go through and tell you what um what all was involved step one as you can see here the project is advertised for bid we advertise it in the e-bid system um but after everyone interview everyone gets again if you rest with e-bid and we're going to have someone talk a little bit more about that in the coming slides for us as you can tell you about how to get registered but if you register with e-bid you will be notified that a solicitation has been released that you may be interested in based on how you register with e-bid so you should get notice of that again we are also advertising the state newspaper and in the south counter office of excuse me south count of business skeebo i'm trying to think what the acronym stands for but it's a publication based on a list solicitations throughout the south Carolina south count of business opportunities because you all are issue of the office of business opportunities for some reason i got that confused in my mind but it's south count of business opportunities i think skeebo scbo um this is an electronic publication that many uh state and municipal agencies advertised their solicitation so the south count of business opportunities that was correct somebody just put it in the chat so i appreciate it thank you um again i had an obo in my mind that's what was causing the block in my mind but again we advertised the solicitation the procurement process commences with that avatation the invitation for bid again as you see there's release for all interested bidders and uh we also will have a pre-bid and i say we'll have a pre-bid pretty much everything we do we have a pre-bid meeting and that's our noticed as well in the solicitation well you'll be uh noticed of the date and the time for the pre-bid meeting since covid we've been doing those pre-bid meetings by conference call so we will right now for the near future we'll continue to do that which really makes it easier for people to attend because you don't have to physically go to a location you can actually just call into a number that's been provided to you in the solicitation with an access code that's also provided and participate in the pre-bid meeting that way um the pre-bid meetings generally and i'll say generally because most every time they are not mandatory however we do highly recommend that you attend the pre-bid meeting because that's where we have the project manager or the end user for the city uh basically the person from the department who's responsible who's actually requiring that purchase to be made for goods or services or whatever it is they're there to talk about the project and to also answer any questions that might come up if something's not clear in our advertisement in the specifications of the drawings if it's a construction project which is what i have a pretty much construction project so if something's not clear we'll have someone there to answer that we also encourage you to submit any questions that you have to our e-bid system there's a question portal and we ask that everybody that has a question please submit those questions to the portal and then we'll get an answer back out to you in writing in a short time um after that pre-bid meeting generally in concurrence with that the office of business opportunities will also host an outreach event it's a separate event from uh procurement and contracts pre-bid meeting but again they will host that and i think i don't want to step on any toes but i think that outreach event is basically it's kind of a networking session so the prime bidders who are attending the pre-bid meeting and also any subcontractors who might be attending uh and and hopefully a lot of dbcdbs and subcontractors of that like those categories will be involved as well and it gives them an opportunity again to do some networking and provide their information to one another from the primes to the subcontractors all right if you go to the next slide we'll talk about step two i think step two um and this is very important for what we're talking about today in these cdbe products step two is a deadline this these solicitations that we're putting out there are cdbe projects columbia disadvantage business enterprise projects actually we'll have two deadlines one one is the compliance deadline of the submittal we call it the csp that is the compliance submittal portion of the project whereby you'll submit that form that aisha spoke of earlier the csp submittal form indicating what percent of the cdb goal you intend to meet when you submit your bid and this cdb participation deadline is as we have it aligned now it's generally two weeks before the bid opening so you will you will do all your legwork and determine what portion of the goal you intend to meet you will then submit that csp this csp commitment letter which is an affidavit it has to be notarized which makes it a sworn statement saying that you plan to meet if the goal and again using that example aisha gave earlier just say well i don't know what percentage you have but i've got 17 in my mind let's just say the project has been designated as a 17 cdb goal you will then indicate on that csp submittal or committal letter that you will either agree that you plan to meet the goal at 17 and then it goes a step further than ask if you say you're going to meet the goal at 17 it asks what percentage do you intend to meet so you can just because the goal 17 that doesn't mean that you can't exceed that you can say you know i plan to meet 20 percent i have 20 percent cdb participation or db participation on this project on the second one is you plan to meet at least 50 percent of the goal so in that case of a 17 cdb goal 50 percent of it would be 8.5 percent so you'll indicate that you plan to meet at least 8.5 percent of the goal and again it has a separate question whereby it asks in that case what percentage of the cdb goal do you intend to meet again you can just because the goal 50 of the goal is 8.5 percent and doesn't mean you can stop there it doesn't mean you have to stop let me say that you can certainly indicate that you plan to meet 10 maybe or whatever you have deemed that you feel like is a comfortable goal for you when you submit your bid and the third selection is whereby you indicate that you plan to meet less than 50 percent of that cdb goal in this case again 17 percent was a cdb goal if you plan to meet less than 50 percent of that ie if you plan to meet 8.4 9999 percent or less cdb dbe participation you would select that one and that's the one this is where the line is drawn if you indicate that in your bid you plan to meet less than 50 percent of the cdb prescribed goal you will then have to submit with your csp letter of commitment your good faith efforts all your good faith effort good faith efforts documentation that i issue was talking about earlier so again you're not required to submit your good faith efforts if you're going to meet the goal which is 17 percent in this case you don't even have to do good faith efforts if you plan to meet the goal if you plan to meet 50 percent of the goal between 50 percent and the goal itself you do not have to you have to you do have to do good faith efforts and keep them on file for a period of three years but you do not have to submit those with your csp commitment letter if you plan to meet less than the cdb goal again in this case which i said was 17 percent and you're going to meet 8.499 percent or less you have to submit with your csp commitment letter your good faith efforts as well okay anybody have any questions about that i'll be happy to answer those either now or i'll ask for questions again at the end and i see we've got some questions in chat i'm not i'm talking and i can't do the one thing at a time so kalina if you'll look at those any those addressed to me um we don't have any questions for you right now gary now i'm thank you ma'am gary gary i just wanted to say one thing um can you go back to that previous slide um step two the csp participation law is now part of the good faith effort documentation so again as gary stated if you are going to be below 50 percent of that hypothetical 17 percent goal you would need to submit your good faith effort documentation which would include your cdbe um participation law just wanted to say that thank you thank you melissa i'm glad you pointed that out because that is a change for what what it was before um i think before everyone had to submit the csp i mean the contractor for this participation log now is melissa just pointing out you only have to submit that csp participation log if you're going to meet less um than 50 of the goal again as melissa said it's a part of the good faith effort so i inevitably you have to do the participation log even if you're going to meet 50 of the goal but you don't have to submit that with your csp level but if you're going to meet less than 50 of the goal then that csp participation log has to be submitted along with your good faith efforts it is as melissa said a part of the good faith efforts now thank you melissa for that next slide please and step three uh once we that csp commitment middle period is passed we will then we being procurement and contracts they'll be submitted to us and we have it really nailed down we're getting very close to nailing down how those will be submitted but that will be indicated in the solicitation as to whether they can be sent to us or sent through eb at or how how that'll be submitted but as soon as we get that as i said we'll include that in the solicitation as well when we receive your csp committal letter we will then forward that along with any good faith effort documentation that's submitted for an offer of who's indicating they're going to meet less than 50 of the cdb goal we'll forward all that over to the office of business opportunities they will then take a look at it and again in that case whether good faith efforts have been submitted they will convene the good faith efforts committee whereby they will review your submission and then they will make a determination as to whether the offer is compliant in their submission or whether they're non-compliant and they will then notify procurement and contracts of the offerers who are compliant and those who are not compliant the procurement and contracts will then in turn notify the bidders as to who's compliant we won't know we won't put a list that we'll notify the offers individually you've been deemed compliant please continue with submitting a bid to us on this project on the bid deadline which generally is two weeks after the csp submittal letter portion and again for those who have been found to be non-compliant we will also indicate to them that they've been found to be non-compliant and that a bid will not be accepted from them on the bid opening date so um and there will be a period um i don't know if it's in here but there'll be a period also if someone's being non-compliant i think there's an appeal and melissa you correct me on this or ish i believe there's an appeal period that's allowed for this as well if someone has a an issue with being held non-compliant and they'll have to notify us and we will then notify ovo and that'll be handled in that manner that is correct gary um the arc uh committee um well that's after the bids come in from your invocation invitation to bid is that what your is that what you're referring to right right yeah so there there is a way to appeal that yes sir and i think you're going to talk about that thank you yeah i did i went yeah i went over that and my slides gal behind me to reiterate that thank you i sure i again i guess i wasn't paying attention when you come on for that so i was trying to multitask and do other things but thank you ma'am all right next slide then step for step four step four is when the actual bid opening occurs this is again for those who've been deemed compliant and we've notified them of that they will then submit their bids when the bid opening comes they have to submit again the business information records this is a listing of the things required when you submit your bid and again this is also included in the solicitation it tells you what is required to submit a bid for this project again the bid after it has to be signed it has to have the name of the better of their contact information the person who is submitting the bid and make sure that they have a person authority can do that um the bid form which is the line item listing of all the parcels of the work itself with the quantities included and in their prices the bid bond the prime business information statement the business information record for subcontractors subconsolvates and subcontractors that's the form i'm talking about whereby when one submits a bid and let's just say that during the csp submittal portion they indicated they were going to meet that 17 cdbe goal when the bid is submitted that bior form of business information records form we call it bior for short is an acronym it needs to include it needs to show that they've got seven at least 17 percent of cdbe's and or dbe's for this project and i think i did hear i should say earlier that um because this question has come up a number of times in the past if the prime bidder or the prime contractor the one the entity who is submitting the bid if that uh prime contractor is themselves a dbe and or a cdbe that that that does not count towards that cdbe goal in other words if the prime contract is a dbe or cdbe um and they you say well we've beaten 100 percent because we know that doesn't count it has to be for your subcontractors it had to be dbe's and or cdbe's and that percentage as i said if it's 17 percent would need to be indicated on that business information record form that you submit with your bid that's that will then be sent back to lbo for them to check and make sure that you didn't just write down an entity and saying that they're a cdbe or they're a dbe that would need to be confirmed that the entity you submitted as a subcontractor or 10 percent of the product of 17 percent or whatever it is is in actuality is actually a dbe and or a cdbe so and if you're found not to have that uh if you if you said you were going to meet the goal at 17 percent and then when you submit your bid and you've got 15 percent then you would be held to be non responsive in that case because you did not do what you said and what would you at what we asked you you didn't need to go um and the other things that are needed to be included will be your business of your non collusion after david your local business enterprise qualification statement if you that's um basically we include that in our bids as a sample for those who might be a local business enterprise again i should talk a little bit about that earlier from the eight county combined statistical area that she showed one of those eight counties if you're in those eight counties and you have an office um a little different from cdbe whereby you just have to have an office in your headquarters i believe it has to be for an lb has to be within that eight county csa um but it's a sample there that you would need to get that form and then submit that with your bid as well if you want to be considered as a local business enterprise and i'm getting a little here because i think and aisha and you and melissa can correct me on this i believe if you're going to be an lb a local business enterprise are certified as such you have to submit that documentation prior to get open so that that's there thank you ma'am that's there for information just to let you know what would need to be submitted also the affirmative action utilization plan the organizational conflict of interest statement also has to be signed and submitted and a copy of your south carolina general contractors license has to be submitted with the bid um again it says here the next bullet that acceptance of bids only from bidders determined to be compliant by obo that was that previous step i mentioned when you submit your csp the middle letter uh we will send that to obo and obo will let us know who is compliant and who is not compliant and we will then notify the bidders of the offers at that point you know you've been deemed compliant please submit a bill you've been deemed not compliant and then the human contracts will then forward the relevant documentation to obo for final compliance review that is what i was talking about earlier with the business information records form if you say contract and bry is a cdbe and they're going to be performing 12 percent of the work and then so contract def is a dbe and they're going to be performing five percent of the work for a total of 17 percent we would then want obo to verify that that entity you indicated was a cdb was a cdb and or a db and the same for the entity that you indicated was a db we want to make sure that they were a db as you had indicated hi thank you next style please and then step five and six step five is when once the bids are received the filming in contracts will then move the view the bids were submitted by compliant bidders for responsiveness and responsibility will make that determination that those bidders are responsive and responsible and then the next step is we'll get the um we'll get a compliance memo from office of bids opportunities and recommendation from our end user or project manager to move forward with the lowest responsive and responsible bidder and then we'll make the process of the steps to move forward with getting the item on account as a general for their approval and then once they approve it we'll then get the contracts executed and then have a pre-construction meeting and at that point we'll determine when the notice proceed will be and then we'll get that issued and that will send the project on its merry way hopefully to be completed very successfully and uh and again we've gone over a lot if you've got any questions i'll be happy to answer and i think that's it for my slides if you can check them yep that's the last one does anyone have any questions for gary before we move on we don't have any questions in the chat right now i should okay we'll feel free we have gary for for the rest of our presentations and they'll be here if you have any questions about that process and then we'll we'll be right back with the chairman in just a moment to go over you did so we'll move forward with the update regarding complaints any convert complaint received by the city concerning the city e policy we'll make sure we investigate those and report them to the city manager um and to city council as deemed necessary also um additional rules and regulations the city may with approval of the city manager promulgate additional rules and regulations not inconsistent with this policy will the city manager reserve the right to review our programmatic provision um this should it be found to be in the best interests of the city and we typically add this to all programs um it really is is our intent with this program to um encourage the utilization of minority women veteran owned businesses so we want to make sure that any programmatic provisions are in line with that mission and if we need to make changes we want to be able to make those and in the event any of the policies found to be invalid or unenforceable um that particular provision will be taken out um not the entire policy and that and this is typical language for programs regarding program compliance i want to mention that our office monitors pay applications throughout the entire contract to ensure that the cbd so contractor goal is maintained for the duration of the contract this is very important because we do not want a um prom contractor to say they're going to utilize the cbd at the at the front end and be awarded a contract and then not follow through with that requirement so um as pay applications come in our staff reviews those to see how they are moving towards making sure that they meet that goal and one of the big things is that there's a change order our contract amendment we want to make sure that that um goal that has been established is still met throughout the duration of that um project so we look at that with all pay applications that are submitted to our office um and we'll maintain those records and we provide reports to city manager and city council so that they can um monitor the success of the program and the changes need to be made um how are we as far as meeting the goals that have been established um and if any changes need to be made so those reports are very important and i just want to ensure um all of our participants that is information that we review on a regular basis regarding cdbe subcontractors um substitution we recognize that um from the time a bid is submitted and awarded and the project starts and when the actual work is going to be done there's a bit of time between that time period and sometimes substitutions are necessary so when that happens we want to ensure that the cbd goal is still met and that um if they do not meet that cbd goal with a substitution that that could potentially constitute a material breach of contract so we've um inserted this information regarding damages for not um doing what the contractor said that they were supposed to do so every effort should be made to replace a cbd with another cbd and we can make sure that we uh we make sure that is um adhered to throughout the project that's very important to us this is just a list of all of our um forms in the application they're all listed here and then i have you can see them right here so the first one is our letter of cdbe commitment um and it really is kind of self-explanatory in here you're going to say if you meet that we will put the goal amount or you will put the goal amount as the prime contractor will put the goal amount in here and tell us if you're going to meet or exceed if you're going to meet at least 50 percent or if you're going to be below 50 percent and if you check that seed then that's going to be you're going to be required to submit your dfd documentation um to show that you did do what you're supposed to do as far as meeting the faith efforts and then we're also going to look to make sure that you took the tiered approach so our focus of course is that you utilize cdbe but while we recognize that sometimes you may have to expand out um beyond that cdbe that's why we have this tiered approach and this is where you would indicate it on this one page form um and then you're just making sure that the cdbe or dbe is self-performing a minimum of 50 and that's just to say we want to make sure that the cdbe or dbe is actually performing the work that you're saying that they are going to perform it's very important that our cdbe's or dbe's are not utilized as a pass through we want to make sure that they are performing the work as indicated um at the beginning of the project and then that has to be signed and notarized and submitted. The next um I have is appendix H is the gfdcdbe dbe participation log as we mentioned um that's submitted if you um are below that 50 percent it is not required if you meet or exceed the goal and it just lists the name of the business it the scope of services the materials and the percentage that you expect for that particular business to undertake. Appendix C is the good faith efforts checklist and it goes through each item this is just the first page on here it can be found on our website um I'm sure the link is going to put in the chat several times by now that you can find those on our website and we make sure whenever we update that form we update it on our website and just to plug obo in the city of colombia in general have we all have our new the launch of our new website it looks great very user friendly so I encourage anyone who hasn't been on the city of colombia website to check it out and um see what information is available in there appendix D is the gfe solicitation log sheet includes when the businesses were contacted um who did you who did you speak with what type of certification they have and this is really just a way for you to document that you did everything possible to reach out to the cdbe um our dbe contractors and this is the method that we use to ensure that you've done that again you don't have to submit this if you're below the 50% of the specified next is appendix g is the gfe follow-up communication so we want to make sure that you followed up with the cdbe that you reached out to initially and then what was the result of the conversation um not to say that anyone on this call would do this but we want to make sure that you didn't list a dbe or a cdbe and say that they just weren't interested when they actually were but this is documentation that's followed up with them and what did they say that they were going to submit a bid did they say that they had too much work which is possible everyone's really busy right now but this is where you would document that conversation we've included the capital improvement project list for 21 22 um as you can see on the far right uh we have the possible program so at the front end um city staff determines what type of uh program may be the fit for these projects and depending on the details it may be designated as a cdbe or a mentor protege program so for anyone interested in being a mentor or a protege i encourage you to contact our office and we'd be happy to discuss that program with you and if you would be a good fit for to be a mentor or a protege um so this is just our water draft cf the draft of the cfp for water projects we have wastewater projects in here as well and these are just an estimate so depending on the year depending on um the budget uh this may some of these projects might roll over into the next fiscal year there's a variety of factors but this is kind of just an estimate of the project that we see within this fiscal year and this is specific to wastewater so that is all for the cdbe program and if anyone has any questions about any of the documents the forms um i'd be happy to answer those questions right now thank you aisha and as kalina's looking at the questions if anyone has any i just want to reiterate the fact of the good faith effort so if you are at or above 50 percent you are still required to do good faith efforts correct however you do not have to submit those during the csp process if you are below 50 percent you do have to do your good faith effort and you must submit the good faith effort documentation which includes your participation off during the csp phase of the bid thank you so kalina do we have any questions yet before we get into um how to register in ebid no questions right now but i have provided the links to the um the faith efforts documentation and the letter of commitment documentation they're all in the chat and i'm also adding another link to for everyone if they want to look at the um the faith efforts requirements well guidelines and the resolution utilization policy and we also have a listing of who are current cdbe's and dbe's that we have that listing and that is updated weekly along with the cdbe application form all the information will be found on the following link but you can also contact our office if you have any additional questions kalina anything else okay um if you think of anything you can please again put that in the chat and we'll go to jewel with our procurement and contracts good morning everyone my name is jewel with the city of columbia's department of procurement and contracts i'm the junior buyer here so we get questions all the time about how do you become registered to do business with the city um i think they have spoken a little bit before um kind of about the ebid system thank gary mentioned it a couple of times um so in order to see um the bid opportunities that we have available and be able to actually bid on those projects you will need to become um a registered user um of our ebid system so in an effort to cut down um on uh the office supplies and things like that we have an automated system now it's electronic it's a process via the internet and this is where we utilize our vendor management um we'll provide a link to um this i guess in the chat so basically once you access um our site you will see a screen like this um and either you will log in or you will register as a new vendor which is a little plus sign over there with the little person and you'll go to the next slide so here is a um a link to the website and again we'll put that in the chat for you guys um and like i said you would click on supplier registration and here's where you would enter your company name your phone number all the pertinent information regarding your business um and then you would review and accept the city's terms and conditions by putting a little check mark in the box and then you click next you will complete all the fields um in order to proceed and carry on you have to the these things are required um here's where you would also put uh create your username and password um but again like i said all the fields that are marked with an asterisk is required information and this is the information that we are going to need uh and in order to approve your registration next slide okay so once you get that information um plugged in you are going to uh receive a verification email and this is going to test to make sure that the email address that you put um for your registration is an active email address it is very important to make sure that you enter that information correctly because if you don't receive the verification email then something went wrong um once you receive that email you're going to follow the instructions on that email to continue with your registration process um so again like i said it's very important to enter the correct email address next slide all right so once you confirm um your or once we get your email address confirmed you're going to continue with the registration process now every um vendor is going to be required to put in some commodities these are i these are things that um you know subclasses and classes of types of work that you do what can you do um as far as in your business we have tons of different commodities that you can choose it is very important when you when you register for your account that you pick the correct codes we are going to send you email notices on bid opportunities that arise and in in order to keep you from getting every single bid opportunity that we put out there we're asking what type of business can you provide to us and those are the types of emails that you are going to get as far as when we have a solicitation going out for that type of work so if you are a caterer i probably would not choose either a transportation or construction commodity because you are going to get um email saying that there's a solicitation coming up or a construction project or you know some type of transportation project so it's very important as you choose the correct commodity because those are the email notices that you will receive from us next slide so once you get all that done you submit it um a conference our confirmation email will be forwarded to your email address alerting you that you are fully registered there is a little bit of a process behind those scenes before you get that email and that is we're one of our team members here in procurement and contracts normally it's me but that's where one of our team members and co-workers will go in and actually approve your registration we're going to go in we're going to look we're going to make sure that you supplied us with a phone number that you supplied us with a good email address that you included your tax ID number a lot of vendors will get rejected and it sent back to them requesting more information because they forgot to put their tax ID information in there so it's very important to put that in there so again this is where you would go um this is the email address that you can uh go on to to either register or to log in and see different items um you'll enter your username and password that you created during the time of your registration um and then you would select the bid opportunity that you're interested in and follow the prompts through the submittal process we've made it very easy for you guys it's very user friendly to go in there um to to submit your bids if you ever have any questions you guys can always reach out to any of us and we'll be more than happy to help you um if you are having any type of issues logging in getting passwords reset any of that type of information we'll be glad to help you with that again this is um some contact information from different um you know team members here in our office here in procurement and contracts and again we'll be more than happy to you know walk you guys through any of the registration process if you have any questions or any issues with that i believe that's the end of my presentation so if you guys have any questions um like i said feel free to reach out to any of us we'll be happy to help you guys out thank you jewel do we have any questions for procurement in general or specific to any questions in the chat right now well um i i just want to reiterate it's very important that everyone on the call register for even we utilize that for a lot of different purposes um so it's important if you go ahead and get registered does not take too much time um it's very important that you're aware of the opportunities so you can't respond if you don't know what's going on so we ask that you please register for that um that's helpful for our office as well if we have you in the system already um so everyone that registered they will receive an email with the following a recording of the presentation a copy of the presentation the survey also attached our cdbe brochure as well so if you have any additional questions you'll have that information again you can always contact our office and we'll be happy to set up a zoom call our conference call to go over the different requirements um i do know we have um sandra middleton as well as shannon lizette i don't know if any of you want to speak right really quick before we close we work very closely with our procurement department to make sure that this information flow well for you yes good morning everyone thank you very much iisha um yes i am sandra middleton i'm the purchasing agent here for the city of colombia if you all have any questions at all for our department please do not hesitate to give us a call uh thank you obo for such a great presentation today shannon just reiterate the same uh sentiments um thank you for the opportunity to partner with you all and provide this very valuable type of training thank you shannon um and then also i know i saw dana and andrea and john from colombia water um really quickly most of our projects that we work with colombia water very closely so i just wanted to give them an opportunity to speak if they wanted to say anything this is john rick i'm looking forward to working working with everybody we did some new vendors in here and and we've got a bunch of projects about to roll out so so we're excited about about hitting the ground ground running this week so we've got lines and positive opportunities thank you okay um elicity have anything before we close no i just want to reiterate um the part of the partnership that we have with procurement we do and and with colombia water um so i i just want to reiterate the fact that we do work collectively within these different departments and we certainly look for not only to having more vendors um more diverse vendors but making sure that you're part of our cdb program um again thank you sandra thank you shannon thank you dana thank you joey thank you john for being a part of the presentation this morning and thank you aisha uh great job and and colina thank you okay absolutely thank you everyone um again you'll receive that information today i also want to thank our public relations staff i'm sure you're not going to speak but um they do such a great job of recording all of our webinars and we did not provide this information if it wasn't for them so thank you so much to lisha and her team um at that everyone please stay safe please let us know if you have any questions um we are here as a resource for you and we want to assist you however we can so everyone have a great rest of your day bye