Walsh Unveils New Public Contracting Order Following Civil Rights Complaint

A day after a coalition of minority-owned business advocates filed a federal civil rights complaint against Boston’s public contracting system, Mayor Marty Walsh announced a new executive order with the goal of increasing the number of city contracts to minority- and woman-owned businesses.

The order sets an annual goal to award 10% of city contract dollars to minority-owned businesses and 15% to businesses owned by women.

The order also builds in reporting requirements to the city’s annual budget and creates a new supplier diversity program, which Walsh said will begin with a $2 million investment.

“This is the most structural reform city contracting has had in over a generation,” Walsh said Thursday. The mayor, who awaits Senate confirmation to become the nation’s labor secretary, framed the move as part of an ongoing effort to reduce disparities across the city government.

The move comes after a $1 million city-commissioned study revealed that minority-owned businesses received only 2.5% of contract dollars awarded during the five-year study period.

Asian-American-owned businesses received 1.1% of the total dollars, while Black-American, Hispanic-American and Native-American-owned businesses each received less than 1%.

Businesses owned by white women received 8.5% of contract dollars over the same period.

“We knew going into the study that the results were not going to be good, because we’ve been talking about it for the last seven years,” Walsh said. “We knew that [there were] deep inequities in contracting here in the city of Boston. But the study gives us a detailed roadmap and a legal tool — the most important part — to attack those inequities at the root.”

The data in the city report prompted advocates with the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, Greater Boston Latino Network and Amplify Latinx to file a complaint with the federal Justice Department and Transportation Department.

Counsel for the complainants, Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), said Walsh's plan was insufficient to address the "racial crisis" in Boston's public contracting.

In a statement released after Walsh issued his executive order, LCR said: “To fix this problem, the City cannot act unilaterally." Boston, they maintained, should have "affirmatively" sought suggested remedies from those that have been harmed.

Addressing the complaint Thursday afternoon, Walsh said further conversation is necessary to reach resolution.