Recognizing the 30th Anniversary of Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) programs in the City of Philadelphia,

WHEREAS, In 1980 a small group of Philadelphia businesspeople formed the BrainTrust, a Minority Business Action Group, selected Beverly A. Harper as President, and set as its goal, the passage of legislation in Philadelphia that would guarantee minorities and women a share of City contracts; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Edward Robinson produced documentation that minorities were being awarded less than one percent of City contracts; and

WHEREAS, City Councilman Lucien E. Blackwell, introduced legislation that amended Chapter 17-500 of the Philadelphia Code, City Council overrode a mayoral veto by a vote of 16 to 0, and the Administration promulgated regulations and guidelines; and

WHEREAS, The Minority Business Enterprise Council (MBEC) was in service from 1982-1989 to ensure that minority, women and disabled owned enterprises are afforded equal access and opportunity to compete for and secure contracts within the City of Philadelphia; and

WHEREAS, The first MBEC Council consisted of Dr. Lorraine Brown, Barbara Daniel Cox, Kemmel Dawkins, Angela Dowd-Burton, John Smith, Geri Swift and Joe Young; and

WHEREAS, Past Executive Directors of the Office of MBEC and the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) are Melvin Le Grande, Al Childs, Curtis Jones, Jr., Marla Hamilton, James Roundtree, Michael Williams, Carolyn Nichols, Michael Bell, Curtis Gregory and the current director, Angela Dowd-Burton; and

WHEREAS, In 1990 until 2003, MBEC existed under several executive orders; and

WHEREAS, In 2008, the Office of Economic Opportunity was created through executive order and the legal/legislative framework established in Section 6-109 of the Charter and Chapters 17-1500 and 17-1600 of the City Code; and

WHEREAS, Mayor Michael A. Nutter signed Executive Order 3-12 in September 2012, regarding Anti-Discrimination related to DBE's participating in City Contracts; and

WHEREAS, The Office of Economic Opportunity seeks to promote economic development through its certification program, contract review and monitoring activities, and ongoing interaction with other City departments, quasi-public agencies and the local market place; and

WHEREAS, The Office of Economic Opportunity works with the Philadelphia business community to build internal and external alliances with minority business enterprises, women business enterprises, disadvantaged business enterprises and disabled business enterprises; and

WHEREAS, Over the past five years more than one billion dollars has been awarded to minority, women and disadvantaged business enterprises, due in no small part to the efforts of the Office of Economic Opportunity; and

WHEREAS, Philadelphia has benefited tremendously from the incalculable efforts of legislative and executive action over the past 30 years which encouraged increased DBE participation in City Contracts; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby recognize the 30th Anniversary of Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) programs in the City of Philadelphia, the legislation that created it, and the many minority business people who worked tirelessly to make this legislation a reality in Philadelphia.

FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to the representatives from the Office of Economic Opportunity as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.

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