Interviews & Profiles

How NYC is streamlining MWBE contracting

Lisa Flores, chief procurement officer and director of the Mayor's Office of Contract Services, discussed efforts that have improved how MWBE vendors interact with the city in a Q&A at City & State’s Diversity Summit.

Lisa Flores discussed the city’s efforts to streamline MWBE contracting and improve the experience for contractors.

Lisa Flores discussed the city’s efforts to streamline MWBE contracting and improve the experience for contractors. Rita Thompson

City & State’s Diversity Summit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan on Thursday offered a full-day conference dedicated to fostering business partnerships between state and local government, prime contractors and minority- and women-owned business enterprises contracting. Joining the event was Lisa Flores, New York City’s chief procurement officer and director of the Mayor's Office of Contract Services. Flores discussed the city’s efforts to streamline MWBE contracting and improve the experience for contractors. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How does the city go about recruiting for MWBE contracts?

I know a lot of MWBEs may not be certified with New York City. Either they don't know that you have to be certified with the state and the city and the authorities, but they also may wonder, “So I get certification, what happens next?” 

On engagement, we started a video series on all of our social media, including in Spanish, that follows our curriculum around how to do business with the city. We started in August of last year doing monthly webinars on how to get started doing business with the city, what to expect, what kind of roadmap and how to find opportunities. We've already had over 2,200 folks go through that training, and we continue to expand that curriculum. We also launched this year something called MOCs (Mayor’s Office of Contract Services) in your neighborhood. These are in-person, small workshops. We partner with our chamber of commerce, CUNY regional alliances and others in the neighborhood. It really means meeting vendors where they are and doing white glove, hands-on hand holding of how you get through the process, how do you find opportunities.

How will Michael Garner, former chief diversity officer at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, now in his new role as chief business diversity officer of the Mayor’s Office of Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises help ramp up the city's contracting process?

We are really excited to have Michael as part of the administration. He is the first chief business diversity officer. He has the broad responsibility to bring us all together on a very aggressive mission of getting more MWBE contracts. Michael obviously has really been a trailblazer everywhere. He has already made a huge impact lobbying up in the state for a lot of the legislation that we want to move forward with his broad array of experience and relationships. I'm very excited. 

Why is digital procurement important for MWBEs?

I'll start by saying, as a person who's been in procurement for far too long, I remember the days where everything was on paper. And for those of you who have been doing business with the city for a long time, you probably remember the Vendex (Vendor Information Exchange System) and paper, if you did not do Vendex and paper, consider yourself lucky. I worked at the Mayor's Office of Contracts back in the day when it was a complete data entry process. Sometimes contractors on big jobs, for example, would deliver boxes of paper, just to do their Vendex filings. And those boxes of paper had to be data entered. Very antiquated. In some cases, it was not going to take weeks, but months to get your Vendex files. I know it seems like second nature now. Part of what PASSPort (the city’s digital procurement platform) did in bringing our end-to-end digital system was putting Vendex into a digital format. I'm sure no technology is perfect. I'm sure everyone in this room has had moments where you’ve asked, “Why is this not working?” But being able to get through your filings in a day or two, compared to months, is huge.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.