Title
Dept/ Agency: Offices of Municipal Council/City Clerk
Action: ( ) Ratifying (X) Authorizing ( ) Amending
Type of Service: Urging support on the findings of the New Jersey State Disparity Study
Purpose: To urge the Governor, State Senate and State Assembly to adopt race and gender-conscious programs and statutes to promote equitable and inclusive state procurement practices to remedy the overwhelming disparities in such practices.
Sponsor: Council Member, C. Lawrence Crump
Additional Information:
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WHEREAS, in 2020, the Governor of the State of New Jersey authorized the Department of Treasury to perform a Disparity Study on the State procurement process; and
WHEREAS, organizations such as the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus, the African-American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, State Veterans Chamber of Commerce, the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and others, urged and encouraged the State to complete the Disparity Study; and
WHEREAS, on January 12, 2024, the State of New Jersey finally released the findings of the Disparity Study; and
WHEREAS, the study analyzed more than two hundred forty-thousand (240,000) contracts involving more than sixty (60) different state agencies from 2015 to 2020; and
WHEREAS, the contracts reviewed were Construction, Professional Services and Goods and Services; and
WHEREAS, the Disparity Study revealed what many of us already knew, that the inequities in public contract opportunities for minority, veteran and women-owned businesses in New Jersey are egregiously significant; and
WHEREAS, a substantial majority of state-awarded contracts for goods and services go to businesses owned by white men; and
WHEREAS, even though Black-owned companies in New Jersey represent 9.19% of the available construction businesses, they receive on...
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