Many of our projects’ funding sources come with requirements to use Minority- or Women-Based Enterprises (MWBEs). (There are also requirements for veterans, disabled veterans, etc. but hereafter we will use MWBE as a shorthand.)

MWBE requirements are often (but not always) “best efforts” or “good faith efforts”. Sometimes they are enforced by means of of penalties or liquidated damages. Even when they are only good faith efforts, failure to meet the goals can bring political consequences and hurt Monadnock’s ability to do future work. Further, if failure to meet the goals is coupled with an inability to demonstrate good faith efforts towards those goals, there can be legal consequences. Finally, finding new and diverse bidders is simply good for the long term health and competitiveness of the company. We have found several good new subcontractors through outreach.

Requirements vary by project and it is important for you to verify what certification program is acceptable for the project at hand—i.e., will State- or City-certified MWBEs count towards the goals? At the time of this writing, we typically vary between State- and City-certified MWBEs but other certification programs exist. Sometimes there will be specific, separate goals for M- and WBEs that have to be hit individually. More often lately they are combined and fungible.

Achieving participation and demonstrating good faith efforts starts in preconstruction. These priorities should be in mind even when developing initial bid lists and reaching out for initial subcontractor feedback. When in doubt, assume these requirements apply and are stringent for any affordable housing project. Consider good faith efforts standard operating procedure.

And the best and only way to demonstrate good faith efforts towards MWBE participation is to truly try as hard as we can to achieve this participation.

Here are some typical practices expected of the preconstruction department that should be considered standard operating procedure:

• Include MWBE bidders with whom Monadnock has existing relationships in bid lists.

• Reach out to MWBEs found in online and other databases with whom Monadnock has no existing relationship (three of each—M- and WBE—for every major trade is the rule of thumb) and follow up diligently with both emails and calls.

• In case we someday may need to document best efforts, document all outreach calls, emails, and other efforts. Documentation includes marking the date of outreach calls and emails on the bidding log AND saving all emails related to these efforts (including the bidders’ responses and even/especially when they are responding that they will not be bidding). Here is a sample:

• At the point of project hand-off between preconstruction and project managers, make sure the project management team has received and understands your outreach log.

• Outreach emails should have the project and trade in the subject line of the invitation email. (This requires individualized emails for MWBE bidders. Emails for the record cannot use BCCs.)

For projects with more stringent standards or special situations, consider the following additional measures:

• Hold MWBE outreach sessions.

• Run advertisements (in print and online).

• Solicit second-tier participation in bidding scopes and bid instructions.

• Split up scopes to create custom scopes of work for targeted MWBE subcontractors.

• “Hold hands” as necessary for MWBE bidders not used to our specific procurement processes.

• Help MWBE contractors without certifications get certified.

Here are some useful links:

• NYC Certified MWBE Database:
  http://mtprawvwsbswtp1-1.nyc.gov/Search.aspx

• NYS Certified MWBE Database:
  https://ny.newnycontracts.com/

And here is the NYS HCR guideline on good faith efforts at the time of this writing. (However, keep in mind that each agency may define this differently.)