Executive Summary
Fiscal Year 2020-21 has been both an exciting and challenging year for Portland and for other cities across the country. Over this past year, the City of Portland’s Procurement Services Division has worked to deliver quality services and improved performance for Portlanders as well as for our other customers and stakeholders. In FY 2020-21, some examples include:
- The division executed 914 new contracts and amendments totaling $798M.
- In construction, 12% of payments made went to BIPOC male-owned prime and subcontractor firms, 2% went to BIPOC female-owned firms, and 15% went to firms owned by white women.
- In professional services, 8% of payments made went to BIPOC male-owned prime and subcontractor firms, 3% went to BIPOC female-owned firms, and 10% went to firms owned by white women.
- 31% of all hours worked on City-funded construction projects were worked by men of color, 2% by women of color, and 5% by white women.
- 44% of the apprentice hours on City-funded projects were worked by men of color, 7% by women of color, and 13% by white women.
About Procurement
Welcoming A New Leader
In August 2021, the City of Portland welcomed Biko Taylor as the new Chief Procurement Officer responsible for leading the Procurement Division. Biko has a track record of building community partnerships and diversifying businesses that receive public contracts. "The majority of the Black, Brown, Indigenous, and women-owned businesses that we will advocate for are small businesses,” Taylor said. “Let's be clear … stronger Black, Brown, Indigenous and women owned businesses will result in a stronger Portland. We want to set the mark for exemplary representation not only for Oregon, but for the entire country."
For more about Biko Taylor’s background and role in the City, click here.
What is Procurement?
The term "procurement" refers to the process by which an agency sources or obtains services or goods. More information about about how the procurement process works in the City of Portland can be found in last year's annual report.
Our Mission
The Procurement Services Division has a dual mission:
- Support bureaus in their procurement needs for outsourced goods and services to ensure responsible, transparent and compliant stewardship of public resources
- Lead the City in developing and administering programs to eliminate barriers and achieve equitable outcomes in the investment of the City’s contracted resources
Measurable Outcomes
What did the City procure in the past fiscal year?
Contract-level detail is available to download at the link below.
How equitable has participation in the City's construction and professional services contracting opportunities been?
Contractor-level payment detail is available to download at the link below.
How equitable have the City's construction workforce opportunities been?
Disaggregated detail for construction workforce hours is available on these dashboards.
How equitable have bureau and prime contractor outcomes been in construction and professional services contracting opportunities?
The files below contain project-level detail of the share of payments made to firms owned by People of Color and women. Projects include those completed between approximately January 1, 2018 and June 30, 2021. A highly-detailed interactive dashboard describing project-specific contracting, subcontracting, construction workforce demographics is also available.
Social Equity In Contracting Project
The City of Portland’s Social Equity in Contracting policies and programs exist to promote equitable contracting opportunities for businesses owned by People of Color and by women, as well as opportunities for women and People of Color in the workforce employed on City construction projects. In February of 2021, the City held a Council Work Session that served to kick off a project focused on improving, reinvigorating and expanding these policies and programs so as to increase the positive impacts upon communities of color.
Since then, the City has assembled a project team and engaged with the Fair Contracting Forum+ (FCF+) to establish the project's scope, goals and objectives. Given the sizeable scope of the project and the City’s desire to partner with community in a deep and sincere manner, the project team and FCF+ have spent several months discussing values, process and priorities for moving forward. Looking ahead to Fiscal Year 2021-22, the project team intends to partner with community stakeholders to develop and deliver specific, actionable recommendations to City Council that will serve to allocate funding, implement policy and establish and/or revise programs in line with community priorities to increase the equitable impacts of City contracting investments upon communities of color and women.
Sustainable Procurement Program Update
The City of Portland continues to be a leader in sustainable procurement by pursuing continuous improvement in all program areas and undertaking specific high-impact, high-value initiatives such as the Low-Carbon Concrete Initiative and the Clean Air Construction Program, for which key FY21 updates are provided below. Please refer to the program website for background on either the Low-Carbon Concrete Initiative or the Clean Air Construction Program.
Low-Carbon Concrete Initiative
One of the key elements of the Low-Carbon Concrete Initiative is pilot-testing different low-carbon mixes to understand in-the-field performance and impacts. In October 2020, the Sustainable Procurement Program published a first-of-its kind case study from one of the pilot tests. The case study highlights that the lower-carbon concrete mixes met required performance requirements while reducing carbon footprint of an average sidewalk ramp by 23- 34%. This first case study confirms the significant potential low-carbon concrete has towards reducing the City's carbon footprint. Additional pilot projects are underway and more case studies will be published in 2021-2022.
Also in FY21, the Sustainable Procurement Program convened a multi-stakeholder committee comprised of City construction bureau representatives, concrete producers, engineers, concrete contractors, architects and other subject-matter-experts to develop recommendations for low-carbon thresholds for concrete mixes used on City projects. The stakeholder committee began their discussions in early 2021 and anticipates submitting their recommendations to the City in early 2022.
Clean Air Construction Program
Clean Air Construction (CAC) is a collaboration between the City, Metro, Multnomah County, Port of Portland and Washington County to reduce diesel particulate matter air pollution from public construction sites. During FY21, the CAC Program hit some key development milestones including: formalizing the Program via an intergovernmental agreement among partner agencies; updating the CAC Standard in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on businesses; and engaging more public agencies to participate, with TriMet confirming its participation starting FY22.
Another key milestone for FY21 included the hire of a Program Coordinator to lead CAC program development, stakeholder engagement, and CAC implementation on behalf of all the partner agencies. As a result, the Program was able to realize some significant outreach and engagement achievements including: distributing informational outreach materials to nearly 1,100 contractors, including over 650 COBID (Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity) certified firms; providing free fleet assessments and compliance plans for nine COBID certified contractors with a cumulative 57 vehicles/equipment to date; and providing grant writing support to Columbia Corridor Association for applying for an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Diesel Emissions Reduction Act grant. The grant proposal, which includes 5 firms (1 MBE and 2 WBE), was subsequently funded and is estimated to provide over $370,000 in cost share to replace 6 heavy duty diesel trucks.
Procurement Services Profile
What are the division's demographics?
Procurement Services strives to reflect the diversity of the community it serves. The graphic below depicts the demographics of the division' workforce.
