MEMPHIS, Tenn. — City Hall may have been closed, but Monday morning Mayor Jim Strickland was on the job talking city contracts.
“It is shameful that only about 1 percent of business receipts in our city, according to a recent study, went to businesses owned by minorities or women,” Strickland said.
So he has hired Joann Massey as the new director of Minority and Women-Owned Business Development.
With 15 years of consulting under her belt, she will focus on getting more women and minorities at the table to win contracts with the city.
“We plan on building a team that is actually going to get out of our offices, get into the community and actually meet with business owners where they are, not necessarily just having them to come to city hall,” Massey said.
Strickland said last year women and minorities had only 12 percent of the contract business with the city, down from 14 percent in 2014.
Women owned businesses like Data Facts in Cordova know the challenges. Data Facts is working on a city contract for its background screening services and sees the new office as a way to open more doors.
“It makes it easy. Sounds like there is a go-to place and person to cut through the red tape. For smaller businesses who don’t have many resources maybe, make this process easy,” said Lisa May, the senior vice president of Data Facts.
The mayor isn’t setting a participation goal but said there is plenty of room for improvement.
“City government cannot change this over night, but we can do our part and certainly lead by example and challenge the private sector to do the same,” Strickland said.
Joann Massey’s position is a result of the mayor combining the Office of Contract Compliance with the Memphis Office of Resources and Enterprise, also known as MORE.
The mayor said that combination will improve city performance on contracting and create more efficiency for taxpayers.
