SANTA CRUZ COUNTY
PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATIVE MANUAL

PURPOSE:

To define the County's Contract Compliance Outreach Program.

POLICY: 

The following outreach program is designed to enhance a broad representation of the community including Minority, Women, Disabled and locally owned business enterprises (MWDBE) and encourage contracting activity with the County. 

PROCEDURE:

1. The Equal Employment Opportunity Office staff will use the following directories/information for outreach efforts for the contract compliance program; Santa Clara County contract directory; minority businesses from Santa Cruz County; local trade associations (i.e. Women in Building and Design); community business groups (i.e. the Minority Business Coalition); minority and disabled community organizations; Chambers of Commerce from each city in the County and any specialized chambers (i.e. Hispanic Chambers) and any local directories or organizations. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will also assist by gathering any lists of local MWDBE businesses/ agencies within our County community. This information will be forwarded to the Public Works Department and the General Services Department and be made available to all County departments. 

2. To facilitate outreach efforts, each County Department that is authorized to award contracts will submit completed forms PER4013 or PER4014 with their contract for approval with a copy of this form to the Equal Employment Opportunity Office indicating:
   1. the type of contract;

   2. MWDBE status;

   3. subcontract information; and

   4. outreach efforts.

3. The Equal Employment Opportunity Office staff will also use the following resources for outreach: northern California minority business publications, newspapers, and magazines to obtain whether local MWDBE businesses are connected with them and if so, subscribe to such publications. The following is an initial list of publications: Network Magazine, Minority Professions Magazine, Minority Business Entrepreneurs, Trade Women, Black Business, Daily Pacific Small Business Exchange. The Equal Employment Opportunity Office will investigate to find out whether they cover our local area and whether they know of similar associations for our local business area. Once a list is established the General Services Department will mail the Prospective Bidder fact sheet along with the list of County Contracts to all local businesses and request them to check the applicable services and return it to the same Department. The Sheet will also inform them that the County is committed to increasing contracting participation to Local, Minority, Women, Disabled Owned Business Enterprises. Fiscal impact: subscription fees if they concern our local area. 

4. The Equal Employment Opportunity Office and the appropriate departments will advertise (if fiscally possible) in local newspapers and MWDBE newsletters stating that the County is interested in contracting with local businesses that reflect a broad representation of the community, especially encouraging MWDBE's to contract with the County.

5. The completed MWDBE Questionnaire information will be entered into a centralized County contract/purchasing computer data system which will provide reporting and informational interest notifications to be mailed out to those vendors on file as soon a contract is anticipated.

6. The General Services Department with the assistance of the Equal Employment Opportunity Office will create and maintain an Contracting informational pamphlet for the public which will include the County's Contract Compliance Policy.

7. The Equal Employment Opportunity Office and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, will coordinate with General Services, Public Works and other Departments as deemed appropriate, to conduct community forums and/or fairs on how to contract with the County. These will be open to all businesses and will be published in local newspapers and business publications. Mailings will also be sent to the MWDBE's. Once the most common types of services MWDBE'S are identified, the Equal Employment Opportunity Office will coordinate with the appropriate departments to conduct workshops on specific contracting areas, i.e. food service or small construction work and how to contract with the County. 

8. The Equal Employment Opportunity Office staff, Commission members and other appropriate departments will attend local Business fairs and provide interested businesses with the Prospective Bidder fact sheet, the County Commodity list and the Contract Compliance Informational Pamphlet. The appropriate County departments will actively participate with other local Public Agencies in planning workshops related to contracting activity.

9. The Equal Employment Opportunity Office will work with the County Administrative Officer, County Counsel, and other appropriate department heads to research the feasibility of specific strategies that will assist MWDBE's contracting activity such as, waiving insurance requirements, and/or using the prime contractors bonds and teaming them with small MWDBE contractors to join in on one contract award. 

10. Those County Departments that are in any way involved with the contract award process will conduct targeted outreach and promote greater participation for all groups including underutilized Minority, Women, local and Disabled Owned Business Enterprises and Non-Profit Agencies.