Breaking down large contracts so smaller, minority-owned companies can successfully bid for them, and creating a micro-loan fund are among recommendations made in a study of Davenport's bidding process.

Davenport is the first Iowa city to review its purchasing practices related to minorities. The total cost of the study was just under $150,000, with the state of Iowa picking up $75,000 of the total.

Davenport's Affirmative Action Advisory Committee will present the study, by Oakland, Calif.-based Mason Tillman Associates, to the Davenport City Council at its July 15 meeting.

Mason Tillman Associates reviewed 477 city contracts bid over a five-year period, from January 2003 to December 2007. The contracts totaled $89 million, and while 74 percent of the money was spent locally, a statistically significant disparity existed in contracts for minority-owned and women-owned businesses.

For prime contracts, companies owned by white males were used for about 90 percent, while minority-owned businesses, including businesses owned by women, were less than 10 percent. The rate for subcontractors was about the same, according to the report.

The study, more than 200 pages long, makes 35 recommendations on how to open up bidding to more minority-owned businesses. Staff is considering which five of the 35 recommendations to implement as soon as possible, Redmond Jones, Davenport affirmative action officer, said as the advisory committee reviewed the report Thursday.

Sub-contractor recommendations led the list of possible changes that could be made to help minority-owned businesses, according to the study. Among them were breaking large procurements into smaller contracts where feasible, establish a direct purchase program for supplies or equipment, so that a subcontractor only needs to provide labor, establish an apprentice program on construction contracts and establish an owner-controlled insurance program.

Willie Henderson, chairman of the affirmative action advisory committee, is also a small business owner whose landscaping and construction company is registered with the city as a disadvantaged business enterprise, so he has experienced some of these problems.

"I think the program shows room for improvement," Henderson said. "A large contract can be a big problem for a small company.

"They want you to compete with a large contractor, but with the cost of financing and insurance, that is a big problem," he said. "We need help."

The study notes a number of anecdotal problems that minority-owned companies face with city contracts, including being held to a higher standard than their non-minority counterparts, difficulty breaking into the contractor community, problems meeting the city's contractor licensing test.

Sydney Ethridge, of the Minority Enterprise Construction Council, said he hopes his group can help solve some of those problems.

"Our biggest job is to educate minority contractors and advocate for minority contractors," he said. "We need to move forward aggressively."

He said the MECC will teach how to bid for contracts, provide information needed in the bidding process and make sure they have all the documentation needed for a successful bid.