Small Business Development

Affirmative Action Plan Unit

This Unit implements the County Ordinances which require the submittal of a firm’s affirmative action plan and procurement policies, as follows:

• Ordinance No. 82-37
  All firms properly licensed to provide engineering, architectural, landscape architectural, land surveying and mapping services (A/E firms), regardless of their individual assignments in connection with an advertised project that they are responding to, must have an affirmative action plan filed and approved by the County’s Small Business Affairs/DPM, by the response deadline of the aforementioned advertised project.
• Resolution R-1040-93
  All A/E firms, as defined above, must provide information in their proposal, as to their furtherance and compliance with their approved affirmative action plan, when responding to the County’s advertisement for the acquisition of A/E services.
• Ordinance No. 98-30
  All firms, including A/E firms, as defined above, with annual gross revenues in excess of $5,000,000, must have an affirmative action plan and procurement policies filed and approved by the County’s Small Business Affairs/DPM as a condition of contract award. If a firm’s annual gross revenue does not exceed $5,000,000, then the firm must complete and return the Ordinance 98-30 AAP/PP Affidavit form for processing.

Construction and Engineering Unit

This Unit is responsible for reviewing the larger County construction projects during the preparation of the construction drawings and breaking them down into smaller projects to afford opportunities for maximum participation by small businesses. Additionally, this Unit provides the necessary professional and technical support to the Department regarding construction, engineering and architectural related issues.

Fair Business Practice Unit

This Unit is responsible for implementing the anti-discrimination program which serves to eliminate and prevent discrimination activities pertaining to contracting, procurement, bonding and financial services.

This Unit is also responsible for implementing the Debarment Ordinance which ensures that the County does not contract with firms that have a history of poor performance on County contracts or, when they have, by commission of crimes or rendition of civil judgments, shown lack of honesty and integrity. The debarment process includes assessing debarment requests from the County departments to determine merit, recommendations to the County Manager as to the appointment of debarment committees, staff support to these committees, as well as a joint role with the County Attorney’s Office in presenting the County’s case at debarment hearings.