Okaloosa County BOCC — January 5, 2016 — DBE PROGRAM Jan 2016 Revisions — reading text

considered when adjusting the base figure. These include:  i. The current capacity of DBEs to perform work in your DOT-assisted contracting program, as measured by the volume of work DBEs have performed in recent years; ii. Evidence from disparity studies conducted anywhere within your jurisdiction, to the extent it is not already accounted for in your base figure; and iii. If your base figure is the goal of another recipient, you must adjust it for differences in your local market and your contracting program. 2. If available, you must consider evidence from related fields that affect the opportunities for DBEs to form, grow and compete. These include, but are not limited to: i. Statistical disparities in the ability of DBEs to get the financing, bonding and insurance required to participate in your program; ii. Data on employment, self-employment, education, training and union apprenticeship programs, to the extent you can relate it to the opportunities for DBEs to perform in your program. 3. If you attempt to make an adjustment to your base figure to account for the continuing effects of past discrimination (often called the "but for" factor) or the effects of an ongoing DBE program, the adjustment must be based on demonstrable evidence that is logically and directly related to the effect for which the adjustment is sought. e. Once you have determined a percentage figure in accordance with paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section, you should express your overall goal as follows: 1. If you are an FHWA recipient, as a percentage of all Federal-aid highway funds you will expend in FHWA-assisted contracts in the forthcoming fiscal year; 2. If you are an FTA or FAA recipient, as a percentage of all FTA or FAA funds (exclusive of FTA funds to be used for the purchase of transit vehicles) that you will expend in FTA or FAA-assisted contracts in the forthcoming fiscal year. In appropriate cases, the FTA or FAA Administrator may permit you to express your overall goal as a percentage of funds for a particular grant or project or group of grants and/or projects. If you set overall goals on a fiscal year basis, you must submit them to the applicable DOT operating administration for review on August 1 of each year, unless the Administrator of the concerned operating administration establishes a different submission date. If you are an FTA or FAA recipient and set your overall goal on a project or grant basis, you must submit the goal for review at a time determined by the FTA or FAA Administrator. You must include with your overall goal submission a description of the methodology you used to establish the goal, including your base figure and the evidence with which it was calculated, and the adjustments you made to the base figure and the evidence relied on for the adjustments. You should also include a summary listing of the relevant available evidence in your jurisdiction and, where applicable, an explanation of why you did not use that evidence to adjust your base figure. You must also include your projection of the portions of the overall goal you expect to meet through race-neutral and race-conscious measures, respectively (see §26.51(c)). You are not required to obtain prior operating administration concurrence with the your overall goal. However, if the operating administration's review suggests that your overall goal has not been correctly calculated, or that your method for calculating goals is inadequate, the operating administration may, after consulting with you, adjust your overall goal or require that you do so. The adjusted overall goal is binding on you. If you need additional time to collect data or take other steps to develop an approach to setting overall goals, you may request the approval of the concerned operating administration for an interim goal and/or goal-setting mechanism. Such a mechanism must: . Reflect the relative availability of DBEs in your local market to the maximum extent feasible given the data available to you; and i. Avoid imposing undue burdens on non-DBEs. In establishing an overall goal, you must provide for public participation. This public participation must include: Consultation with minority, women's and general contractor groups, community organizations, and other officials or organizations which could be expected to have information concerning the availability of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged businesses, the effects of discrimination on opportunities for DBEs, and your efforts to establish a level playing field for the participation of DBEs. A published notice announcing your proposed overall goal, informing the public that the proposed goal and its rationale are available for inspection during normal business hours at your principal office for 30 days following the date of the notice, and informing the public that you and the Department will accept comments on the goals for 45 days from the date of the notice. The notice must include addresses to which comments may be sent, and you must publish it in general circulation media and available minority- focused media and trade association publications. Your overall goals must provide for participation by all certified DBEs and must not be subdivided into group-specific goals. [64 FR 5126, Feb. 2, 1999, as amended at 64 FR 34570, June 28, 1999; 65 FR 68951, Nov. 15, 2000] §26.47 Can recipients be penalized for failing to meet overall goals? a. You cannot be penalized, or treated by the Department as being in noncompliance with this rule, because your DBE participation falls short of your overall goal, unless you have failed to administer your program in good faith. b. If you do not have an approved DBE program or overall goal, or if you fail to implement your program in good faith, you are in noncompliance with this part. §26.49 How are overall goals established for transit vehicle manufacturers? a. If you are an FTA recipient, you must require in your DBE program that each transit vehicle manufacturer, as a condition of being authorized to bid or propose on FTA-assisted transit vehicle procurements, certify that it has complied with the requirements of this section. You do not include FTA assistance used in transit vehicle procurements in the base amount from which your overall goal is calculated. b. If you are a transit vehicle manufacturer, you must establish and submit for FTA's approval an annual overall percentage goal. In setting your overall goal, you should be guided, to the extent applicable, by the principles underlying §26.45. The base from which you calculate this goal is the amount of FTA financial assistance included in transit vehicle contracts you will perform during the fiscal year in question. You must exclude from this base funds attributable to work performed outside the United States and its territories, possessions, and commonwealths. The requirements and procedures of this part with respect to submission and approval of overall goals apply to you as they do to recipients. c. As a transit vehicle manufacturer, you may make the certification required by this section if you have submitted the goal this section requires and FTA has approved it or not disapproved it. d. As a recipient, you may, with FTA approval, establish project-specific goals for DBE participation in the procurement of transit vehicles in lieu of complying through the procedures of this section. e. If you are an FHWA or FAA recipient, you may, with FHWA or FAA approval, use the procedures of this section with respect to procurements of vehicles or specialized equipment. If you choose to do so, then the manufacturers of this equipment must meet the same requirements (including goal approval by FHWA or FAA) as transit vehicle manufacturers must meet in FTA-assisted procurements. §26.51 What means do recipients use to meet overall goals? a. You must meet the maximum feasible portion of your overall goal by using race-neutral means of facilitating DBE participation. Race-neutral DBE participation includes any time a DBE wins a prime contract through customary competitive procurement procedures, is awarded a subcontract on a prime contract that does not carry a DBE goal, or even if there is a DBE goal, wins a subcontract from a prime contractor that did not consider its DBE status in making the award (e.g., a prime contractor that uses a strict low bid system to award subcontracts). b. Race-neutral means include, but are not limited to, the following: 1. Arranging solicitations, times for the presentation of bids, quantities, specifications, and delivery schedules in ways that facilitate DBE, and other small businesses, participation (e.g., unbundling large contracts to make them more accessible to small businesses, requiring or encouraging prime contractors to subcontract portions of work that they might otherwise perform with their own forces);  2. Providing assistance in overcoming limitations such as inability to obtain bonding or financing (e.g., by such means as simplifying the bonding process, reducing bonding requirements, eliminating the impact of surety costs from bids, and providing services to help DBEs, and other small businesses, obtain bonding and financing); 3. Providing technical assistance and other services; 4. Carrying out information and communications programs on contracting procedures and specific contract opportunities (e.g., ensuring the inclusion of DBEs, and other small businesses, on recipient mailing lists for bidders; ensuring the dissemination to bidders on prime contracts of lists of potential subcontractors; provision of information in languages other than English, where appropriate); 5. Implementing a supportive services program to develop and improve immediate and long-term business management, record keeping, and financial and accounting capability for DBEs and other small businesses; 6. Providing services to help DBEs, and other small businesses, improve long-term development, increase opportunities to participate in a variety of kinds of work, handle increasingly significant projects, and achieve eventual self-sufficiency; 7. Establishing a program to assist new, start-up firms, particularly in fields in which DBE participation has historically been low; 8. Ensuring distribution of your DBE directory, through print and electronic means, to the widest feasible universe of potential prime contractors; and 9. Assisting DBEs, and other small businesses, to develop their capability to utilize emerging technology and conduct business through electronic media. c. Each time you submit your overall goal for review by the concerned operating administration, you must also submit your projection of the portion of the goal that