As a result of a US Supreme Court decision, the City and County of Denver created a citizens advisory council they call the Construction Empowerment Initiative (CEI). The goal of this council is to provide a platform for small, local firms to advocate for themselves.
Over the last 18 months, Lacey Goetz, PE has served as the Chair of the Disparity Study/Ordinance Review sub-committee. Meeting bi-weekly in 2017 and weekly in 2018, the sub-committee was tasked to review the existing Division 1 ordinance titled Division of Small Business Opportunity (DSBO). This ordinance spells out how the City will develop and enforce programs to enhance minority, women, and small business enterprise utilization in city construction, professional design and construction services and promote economic development of the same per the Supreme Court mandate. The ordinance sunsets in April of 2019 and has not been re-written since design/bid/build was the primary delivery mechanism and does not address alternate project delivery systems such as design/build, CMGC, and P3’s which are heavily used for large projects.
The committee made major and minor recommendations and presented the entire package to the City for legal wordsmithing. You can still have an impact by contacting the City and County Division of Small Business Opportunity. Additionally, an overview of the recommendations will be presented at the general CEI meeting on August 28th 2018, at the Wellington Webb Building, 201 W Colfax Ave, Denver, CO.