Port of Long Beach and Long Beach Transit Look to Diversify Small Business Contractors and Vendors

For small, minority, disabled veteran and women owned businesses looking to do business with the Port of Long Beach and other regional transit authorities, Long Beach Transit and its office of Regulatory Compliance and Civil Rights, hosted a Prime Time Business Networking event, providing insight to business owners seeking certification as a small business and also the internal bidding process used for hiring contractors and vendors.

Certification through the Port, CalTrans, the City of Los Angeles, or the State of California’s Department of General Services (DGS) is an automatic requirement to bid on and receive Port and other transit authority contracts.

Each of these agencies purchase a range of products and services, from chemical and cleaning products, software as a service, IT systems and telecoms, to buses, automobiles and the tires, service and maintenance required to keep those vehicles road worthy.

Long Beach Transit and the Port are both deeply interested in meeting targeted goals around diversifying their vendor and contractor pools, by looking to offer 10% of contract and procurement business to DBE’s or Disadvantaged Business Enterprises.

Aida Douglas, an officer for Long Beach Transit Compliance and Civil Rights division, served as host for the event, and also provided insight into the murky and often confusion process Long Beach Transit has set up to meet these goals.

Douglas requested the help of local business owners in helping her office meet these goals, as without women, minority and very small businesses who are both SBE certified and registered on PlanetBids.com, the online vendor portal where agencies across the city and region post opportunities for bid, Long Beach Transit and other organizations are unable to achieve their desired outcomes for inclusion.

In California the different business designations for consideration include:

• SBE: a small business enterprise that meets specific race neutral ownership and economic criteria as established by State and Federal guidelines.
• DBE: for-profit small businesses where socially and economically disadvantaged person own at least a 51% interest and also control management and daily business operations.
• DSBE: disabled business enterprise or DIS is a business at least 51% owned and controlled by a handicapped individual or service-disabled individual.
• DVBE: veteran owned business enterprise where the business is at least 51% owned by one or more disabled veterans and daily business operations are managed and controlled by one or more disabled veterans.
• MBE: minority-owned business or minority business enterprise, or a for-profit enterprise, regardless of size, which is 51% owned, operated and controlled by minority group members.
• VSBE: very small business enterprise, or California micro business designation in which gross sales are below $3.5 million annual average over past three years or a manufacturer with 25 employees or less.
• WOSB:A business concern in which one or more women have 51 percent or more stock ownership.

In her remarks, Janet Lohr, Purchasing Manager for Long Beach Transit clarified the difference between a bid, (an organization wants to purchase x number of item y) and an RFP or request for proposal, where the ask is for a company to submit a document outlining how they could meet the needs of the business entity.

Lohr went on to note, the public may believe government is always looking for the lowest price when doing their purchasing, but that her office puts a high value on the qualifications and technical skills of the individuals or team able to fulfill RFP goals.“If we have to re-solicit [a bid], we’ve wasted the taxpayers dollars.” she said.

The evening concluded with business owners introductions to the entire group, as Aida Douglas told the audience,”while we’re interested in having all of you become vendors of Long Beach Transit, we’ve also achieved our goal if all of you begin doing business with one another.”