Four years after a study outlined barriers that face minority- and women-owned businesses in winning Arlington city government contracts, officials say the changes they’ve made have moved the city closer to their goals.
Part of that process has involved rebuilding trust among businesses considered Minority- and Women-owned Businesses and Enterprises (MWBEs). A 2020 study outlined disparities between the city’s use of MWBE firms despite their presence in North Texas.
“The word on the street is don’t even try to apply in Arlington because they are not awarding contracts to MWBEs,” said Arlington City Council Member Barbara Odom-Wesley. “We have to change that whole perception.”
Erica Thompson, MWBE manager, said the city has surpassed its goals for MWBE contracts since Fiscal 2022. In Fiscal 2023, the city awarded 45.13% of contracts monitored by the city's MWBE program to MWBE firms. Thompson declined to share numbers for the latest fiscal year before presenting the numbers to city council, but said the city exceeded the 30% goal for 2024.
Thompson said her department has been intentional in outreach to and education in the business community.
“I think the MWBE contract community knows the city of Arlington is open for business,” she said. “I see that they are bidding, I see that they’re giving us a second chance.”
Thompson heads the Office of Business Diversity, which was established in 2022 according to the Unity Council Report. The office’s responsibilities include monitoring city contract progress and MWBE certification; tracking new MWBE firms doing business with the city; and education and outreach services.
The office’s creation was one of several recommendations put forth in the disparity study, as well as recommendations from the city’s Unity Council. The city has also raised its goal for MWBE contract spending to 30% from 25%.
Odom-Wesley said she sees improvement in the city’s contracts to MWBE firms, but there’s still room for improvement. The third-term council member has pointed over the past several years to low utilization of Black-owned businesses – a number that sat at below 1% in 2020.
Odom-Wesley said the city’s breakdown of prime contracts awarded to MWBE firms in Fiscal 2023, especially for Black-owned businesses, is an improvement and room to grow.
"What I have for African American businesses, it looks like 7%, which is an improvement over 0.6%, but I think we still have a ways to go there," Odom-Wesley said.
The city has also split up contracts into smaller pieces, she said, which gives smaller businesses a chance of working with the city.
“They may not be able to (repair) all the sidewalks in Arlington, but maybe they could do a street. If we chip it down to smaller, palatable pieces, then it’s something that these smaller firms can handle. And then as they gain experience, then we’re helping them to grow their business as well,” Odom-Wesley said.
Odom-Wesley said city departments are also working on longer-term cultural changes, including programs that help financial institutions build wealth. She listed programs including Prosperity Bank’s Masterclass program and a recently announced mentoring resources through the Arlington Economic Development Corporation and Service Corp of Retired Executives (SCORE). Both programs focus on building businesses and entrepreneurs, she said.
“It’s a whole cultural change in the way that we do business, and not just us, the financial institutions,” Odom-Wesley said.
Looking ahead, Thompson said she would like to see more mentorship between larger firms and smaller ones and partnership across city departments.
“Part of what we do is help build small businesses so they can become larger establishments in the future,” she said.
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