Amidst all the chaos surrounding redistricting and the conflicts of interest surrounding the White Street landfill, City of Greensboro budget discussions carry on.
The Rhino’s John Hammer noted how Rashad Young is crafting his budget right out of the ‘city managers handbook’ by “selecting cuts so unpopular no elected body will approve them.”
One of those cuts, however, is not the city’s MWBE department:
Young proposes closing all the pools and the Benjamin Branch Library, but he doesn’t propose eliminating the Minority and Women’s Business Enterprise (MWBE) Department, just reducing it in size. This department, which has been an impediment to small business development since its inception, is now going to make a switch and be part of the economic development program. This is not hiring the fox to guard the hen house, but putting the fox in the hen house and expecting it to lay eggs.
The MWBE department’s main function has been to monitor businesses in Greensboro that claim to be MWBEs and make certain that they meet the criteria. One common violation is a man putting a business in his wife’s name when his wife does not actually work at the business. In the past only MWBEs certified by Greensboro were recognized as MWBEs.
Down Interstate 40 in Winston-Salem —which has its own budget issues, the City Council is not pondering eliminating the MWBE program, is not pondering reducing the MWBE program, but instead is pondering expanding the MWBE program, in spite of the fact that the city has averaged 12 percent MWBE participation on city projects over the last 12 years.
It is good to see that Deputy City Manager Derwick Page is grounded in reality, noting that in some cases there just aren’t any MWBE contractors available to do certain projects.
