During the last City Council meeting, Item 5H, originally on the Consent Calendar, was pulled by Councilmember Oscar de la Torre and thus opened up for discussion by the Council. The item dealt with the awarding to Colorado-based BBC Research & Consulting, a privately-held economic and market research consulting firm, the contract for a study to explore barriers to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the City’s procurement and contracting practices for the Finance Department.
The cost of the study is not to exceed $175,000 over a two year period with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
“One of the questions that I have is, in terms of baseline data, are we requiring now, to understand our procurement practices, a box check where people can self identify race, ethnicity, gender and so forth?” De la Torre asked.
Oscar Santiago, Director of the Finance Department, fielded the question, responding, “Yeah, we do not. That’s one of the things that we’re hopeful will be brought to light so we can implement these things.”
“So right now, we wouldn’t be able to say, for example, 80% of all vendors that contract with the city are of one group or another, we can’t do that?,” asked de la Torre. Santiago replied that the external consultant would undertake that as part of the project. They will be looking at contractors and subcontractors and identifying this key information in addition to an availability study.
“So, the good news is that we’re going to begin collecting that data so we have some baseline data to understand where we currently are as an organization on the questions of equity and procurement,” said de la Torre in conclusion.
At which point Councilmember Caroline Torosis joined the discussion. “Okay, since you pulled it … I think you probably know this, but we’ve actually established an Office of Strategic Contracting Equity within the county of LA and I would say that I would be disappointed if this actually takes two years to figure this out,” she said. “Because there’s a lot of information out there about what local municipalities are doing wrong and what they could be doing better with respect to equity and contracting with the city.”
Torosis added that she’d love to see the City establish a 25% utilization goal in a preference program for local small business enterprises and even potentially look at social enterprises where there’s a public benefit to the work that the business is doing.
“There are a lot of ideas already out there that have been reported on. I would also just say that the Center for Nonprofit Management has been leading this work regionally, especially for our smaller nonprofits to help them access these contracts. And I’m happy to be a resource and a partner, if that’s something that’s helpful or not. I feel very deeply that this is important,” she said.
The motion to move ahead with the study was made by de la Torre and seconded by Torosis and passed unanimously 7-0.
Council also approved a slate of added protections for renters, including prohibitions against drastic rent increases, unjust evictions and harassment. The updates are in addition to robust renter protections already in place, and in response to a regional increase in eviction filings resulting from the expiration of COVID-related protections, along with the ongoing housing crisis.
The action will result in amendments in the Tenant Protection Code, Housing Anti-Discrimination Code, Tenant Relocation Code, Tenant Harassment Code and Tenant Buyout Agreements Code. These amendments are meant to solidify protections for the city’s renters — approximately 70% of Santa Monica residents — and create greater housing stability.
“Renters make up the majority of our Santa Monica community, and many have called this city home for years,” Mayor Phil Brock said. “It is critically important that families who make up the fabric of our city have the ability to stay here.”
The approved amendments will take effect 30 days after the second reading of the ordinances, which will take place at the council meeting scheduled for Feb. 13.
scott.snowden@smdp.com
