WACO, Texas — Waco wants to better its inclusivity and diversity in its city. The city has hired MGT, a public ethics consulting firm, to help study diversity and inclusion in the area.
According to the city, the study will be used to determine if there are equal opportunities in business for all walks of life. As well as recommendations to better the city's access opportunities for people of color.
"One of the strategic goals right now of our city council is equity inclusion and so this is one of the initiatives that we're looking into is to ensure that our contracting processes provide equity throughout throughout the whole process," said Monica Sedelmeier, Waco's director of communications and marketing.
The study will also analyze if Minority/Women Business Enterprises (MWBE) experience disparities in the local economy, according to the city.
"The reason we look at those is because traditionally, those have been the ones that have been scrutinized the most," said Andres Bernal with the MGT Consulting.
He says they collect qualitative data to complete their study. The firm will review policies and procedures, the city's communication with contractors and payments to different businesses, amongst other things.
"We look at all of those aspects to see what has really become barriers to doing business with the city, especially for small businesses and minority owned businesses," he explained.
Most importantly they want to work alongside former contractors to find out their experiences with the city through town hall meetings, surveys and interviews. The first town hall meeting for this study will be done in the next month or two.
The study is expected to be complete by early 2023.
Sedelmeier says the the contract amount is not to exceed $360,904.
This isn't the first time equal opportunity disparities have been brought to the forefront. The Prosper Waco Snapshot 2021 Report indicated particular neighborhoods cumulatively falling behind; the majority of those neighborhoods are non-white.
The city hopes that initiatives and research will reflect the city’s desire to address inequities across its available contracting pool, culminating in the 2022 disparity study done by MGT.
A little history about MGT, it is one of the country’s largest solutions providers of disparity studies and has conducted more unchallenged studies than any other consultant firm in the country, according to their website.
Having provided disparity studies to municipalities in Texas for the past 20 years, the city says MGT will provide Waco with a specific, accurate, valid and legally defensible disparity study with input from the local community and stakeholders.
Waco City Manager Bradley Ford is excited for the study and ultimately the improvements that will be made in the community because of it.
“I look forward to the results and implementation of this study, as we work together with MGT to identify concrete efforts and strategies that will ensure the City of Waco makes equitable decisions on City contracts and procurement,” he said.