Increasing inclusion in the city’s contracting process

Michael Garner isn’t just New York City’s first-ever chief business diversity officer – he’s also a “change agent,” working to make the business, policy and culture of the city more inclusive. In the  nearly three years he’s held the role, Garner oversees the city’s Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises program. Under his leadership, the city has surpassed its MWBE-utilization goal to have 30% of all municipal contracts be awarded to MWBEs, welcoming diversity in city business. Previously, Garner was the first chief diversity and inclusion officer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He spoke to City & State ahead of its Diversity & Procurement Summit on Thursday, where he is to deliver keynote remarks. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

As the city’s first chief business diversity officer, what have your primary focuses been during your nearly three years in the role? 

The focus has been to reengineer and change the way the City of New York does business to be more inclusive. That’s been a combination of our state laws changed, that’s been a combination of changing policies, which has resulted in a record number of contracts being awarded to city-certified MWBEs. For the first time in history, we have exceeded 30% –  currently speaking, the City of New York is awarding 36% of all of its contracts to city-certified MWBEs.

Since you’ve assumed your role, $24 billion has been awarded to MWBEs. How were you and your team able to accomplish this? 

By giving full authority by Mayor [Eric] Adams to execute our daily duties and responsibilities, having the adequate funding and staff in order to once again execute our daily duties and responsibilities. By having the ability to go to Albany and work with our legislative leaders in order to get all of Mayor Adams’ MWBE bills passed in one legislative session, and then having those bills signed into New York state law by Gov. Kathy Hochul. We have not only changed laws, we changed policies, we changed the culture and we are driving equity in communities of color who have historically been shut out. The City of New York has the best MWBE program in the nation, based upon measurable results of $24 billion being awarded to minority women owned businesses, equaling 36% since Mayor Adams’ first day in office, which was in January 2022.

Can you tell me about the new “Build Your Business With New York City” initiative? 

Based upon the success that we have had, we wanted to highlight success stories. There are a lot of MWBE firms receiving sizable contracts, and so we are going to advertise the success of the City of New York’s MWBE programs next week, starting with a “Build Your Business With New York City” advertising campaign. The goal here is to advertise the success that we have had; also to encourage more ethnic minority and women firms to apply to become certified by the City of New York so we can better integrate these businesses into the various procurement processes at the more than 50 New York City agencies and public authorities.

What’s next for New York MWBEs? Any initiatives or policy in the works to further support underserved businesses? 

The mayor has appointed a 50-member MWBE Advisory Council that’s chaired by myself, co-chaired by former New York City Controller Bill Thompson and the other co-chair is Liz Velez, Chairperson Emeritus of the New York Building Congress. We have a lot of elected officials who helped us get our legislative agenda passed in Albany, we have business leaders and we have MWBE-advocate groups and associations as part of this 50-member advisory council. They are sending us their recommendations of how the City of New York’s MWBE program can operate more effectively and efficiently. We are in an era right now of institutionalizing all of this – the laws, the policies and their recommendations — as we move forward. The City of New York will maintain its dominance in the nation with awarding contracts to certify minority and women owned businesses.

What is the city doing well in the MWBE, diversity and procurement space? Where are improvements needed? 

Where we have had success is increasing the number of companies who are applying and being certified by the City of New York. More so, once they’re certified, we are now better at integrating them into the procurement process at the more than 50 New York City agencies and public authorities. We’re focusing on successful integration of certified MWBE firms into procurement processes at the agencies. We are also looking to improve the amount of contracts that we are awarding to Black, Hispanic and Asian businesses. We effectively call that “dealing with the disparity within the disparity.” There’s been a gradual increase of contracts to those sectors, and we will continue to focus on how the City of New York can do a more effective job of integrating those firms into the various procurement processes.

What drives you in your work in the diversity and inclusion space? How did you come to work on this issue?

What drives me is the ability to help people and to help business owners who need navigation into how to effectively do business with the City of New York. I spent 15 years at the New York City School Construction Authority, leaving a legacy there: that agency having one of the best MWBE programs in the nation. I also spent 14 years at the MTA, which is the largest transportation network in the country, and we were able to turn their MWBE program around there from worst to first. Certainly having the ability now to be appointed as New York City’s first Chief Business Diversity Officer gave my staff and I the platform to integrate the best practices that we’ve learned from two of the most complicated agencies in the country, bringing those best practices here at the city and driving MWBE equity like in no other time in the history. I’ve been fortunate enough to be a change agent, driving change and reengineering processes in order to make sure that the institution’s contract process is awarded in a cost-effective manner, because it’s taxpayers’ money is being spent, but also to award contracts in a more inclusive manner. If there’s any barriers to entry that would prevent these institutions from doing that, we use our legislative power to change state laws.