Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) Inclusion Program

How it Works

The MWBE procurement process applies to procurement contracts:

• Over $50,000 and
• Not emergency purchases, procurements of legal services, or procurements of specialized engineering services

City of South Bend’s Guidelines for Bidding or Quoting on Projects with MBE/WBE Contract Goals

The City of South Bend (the City) is authorized to set “contract specific” goals to increase MWBE participation in City contracts and procurements per Ordinance No 10761-21, signed May 12, 2021 by the Common Council of the City of South Bend.

MBE/WBE participation goals are set based on based upon activities within the scope of work and the MWBE contractors available within the State of Indiana and Berrien County Michigan as identified within the disparity study completed in 2020 for the City of South Bend.

Project bidders and quoters must try diligently to meet the goal. Failure to do so may result in rejection of your bid/quote as non-responsive to the request for bids or quotes.

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Key Terms:

Goal-Eligible Contract refers to a contract that is able to be divided in a way that would allow a subcontractor to perform a commercially useful function AND that contains work represented by at least one of NAICS codes listed in Table 4-9 (“Unweighted Availability”)  in the 2020 City of South Bend Disparity Study.  

Good faith efforts means actions undertaken by a contractor to achieve a contract goal, which, by their scope, intensity, and appropriateness to the objective, can reasonably be expected to fulfill the Program’s goals.

Goal waiver means the acceptance of the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, despite an inability to meet the established contract goals, as a result of the bidder’s demonstration of good faith efforts to achieve the contract goals.

Appeal means to request within 7 days of the bid opening that good faith efforts be reviewed regarding the actions undertaken by a contractor to achieve a contract goal, which, by their scope, intensity, and appropriateness to objective, can reasonably be expected to fulfill the Program’s goals.

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Should you need a goal waiver, you must complete all MBE/WBE forms for the goal on which you need a waiver. Waiver requests will be evaluated with your bid and granted based upon the GFEs communicated on MBE/WBE Forms 1.0, 2.0, and 2.1. Whether or not a bidder submits a bid with the lowest dollar amount, the bidder will be designated as non-responsive if either project goals are not met or the good faith efforts described in the above-mentioned forms do not receive a goal waiver from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s Contractor Compliance Administrator.

Good Faith Efforts, defined above as actions undertaken by a contractor to achieve a contract goal, which, by their scope, intensity, and appropriateness to the objective, can reasonably be expected to fulfill the Program’s goals, are advance, intentional, and active relationship cultivation strategies that one could reasonably expect a bidder to take if the bidder were actively and aggressively trying to obtain MWBE participation sufficient to meet the MBE/WBE contract goals on a bid or quote. Best practices include the following:

• Demonstrate the excessiveness or unreasonableness of the MWBE’s bid or quote. Provide the City with copies of each MWBE and non MWBE quote submitted to the bidder when a non-MWBE was selected over an MWBE.

• Provide the City with good reasons for rejecting a MWBE as unqualified. Investigate and share the results of the investigation regarding a MWBE’s capabilities.
• Use all aspects the work as opportunities to find MWBE participation. Do not exclude from consideration work normally self-performed and anticipate this will be deemed as a valid rationale for not meeting MBE/WBE utilization goals.

GOOD FAITH EFFORTS MATERIALS TO BE INCLUDED WITH BID

If a contractor fails to submit a bid containing quotes and commitments in amounts equal to the utilization goals of the project. The contractor must share the efforts and/or rationale for not having met those goals on form 1.0, 2.0, and 2.1. In the event that the actions taken by the contractor indicate there was a good faith effort made the bidder will receive a goal waiver from the Office of Diversity, Compliance, and Inclusions Contractor Compliance Officer. All bids which have not met the utilization goals and do not receive a goal waiver from the Contract Compliance are considered non-responsive according to the City of South Bend’s Ordinance No 10761-21.

As set forth in Section 8.B.3.d. of the City of South Bend’s Minority and Women Business Enterprise Inclusion Program Plan:

Where the bidder cannot achieve the contract goal, the bidder must provide proof of having made good faith efforts to meet the goal. In making this determination of whether to issue a goal waiver, the City will consider, at a minimum, the bidder’s efforts to:

(1) Solicit through all reasonable and available means (e.g., attendance at pre-bid meetings, advertising and written notices) the interest of all MWBEs in the scopes of work of the contract. The contractor shall provide interested MWBEs with timely, adequate information about the plans, specifications, and requirements of the contract to allow such firms to respond to the solicitation. The bidder must follow up initial solicitations with interested MWBEs.

(2) Select portions of the work to be performed by MWBEs in order to increase the likelihood that the contract goal will be achieved. This includes, where appropriate, breaking out contract work items into economically feasible units to facilitate participation, even when the bidder would otherwise prefer to perform these work items with its own forces. It is the bidder’s responsibility to make a portion of the work available to MWBEs and to select those portions of the work or material needs consistent with the availability of such firms to facilitate their participation.

(3) Negotiate in good faith with interested MWBEs. Evidence of such negotiation includes the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of firms that were contacted; a description of the information provided regarding the plans and specifications for the work selected for subcontracting; and why agreements could not be reached. The bidder may not reject MWBEs as being unqualified without sound reasons based on a thorough investigation of their capabilities. That there may be some additional costs involved in finding and using MWBEs is not in itself sufficient reason for a bidder’s failure to meet the contract goal, as long as such costs are reasonable. The ability or desire of a bidder to perform the work of a Contract with its own organization does not relieve it of the responsibility to make good faith efforts on all scopes of work within which subcontracting opportunities are available.

(4) Make efforts to assist interested MWBEs in obtaining bonding, lines of credit, or insurance as required by the City or the bidder, where appropriate.

(5) Make efforts to assist interested MWBEs in obtaining necessary equipment, supplies, materials, or related assistance or services, where appropriate.

Materials that should be submitted to support a contractor’s good faith efforts include:

• Copies of advertisements, notices, or solicitations from contractor to MWBE’s– to include date and time of issuance;
• A list of all locations where advertisements or notices to MWBE’s were placed or solicitations sent;
• Copies of communication between contractor and MWBE’s in response to contractor’s advertisements, notices, or solicitations;
• Proof of contractor’s break-out of contract items into units feasible for performance by MWBE’s;
• Proof of communications between the contractor and MWBE regarding negotiations for agreements, and why agreement could not be reached, as stated more specifically in above Subsection (b) (3);
• Proof of bids or quotes from MWBE’s and those from non MWBE’s when non MWBE’s bid or quote is used;
• Proof of efforts made by contractor to assist MWBE to participate in contract, where appropriate; and
• Any other information tending to show that Contractor made active, aggressive efforts to meet the MBE/WBE participation goal but despite good faith efforts was unable to do so.

Leadership