City of Toledo Announced Completion of Disparity Study

Mayor Kapszukiewicz and City representatives announced the completion of a yearlong disparity study conducted by Griffin & Strong, P.C., a law and public policy research firm based in Atlanta, GA who have extensive experience in disparity research, program development, and supplier diversity consulting.

This was the first disparity study Toledo has ever commissioned.

The results of the study found overall the city does well when it comes to providing access to women and minority-owned business to procure public contracts but more could be done to improve the process.

“This is the first time we have a playbook for achieving our goal of making sure the City of Toledo’s procurement policies are as strong as they can be,” Mayor Kapszukiewicz said.

“This is important work and there are a lot of leaders in the community interested in this work who want to see it succeed.”

The study was broken down into several major parts including statistical and econometric analysis, legal and purchasing practices analysis, private sector analysis, anecdotal evidence analysis, and findings and recommendations.

The conclusions from the disparity study are in a report containing all the findings and provide recommendations to the City of Toledo regarding the inclusion of minority and women-owned, and disadvantaged firms in its procurement process. 12 recommendations have been made to the city, some of which have already begun implementation, such as hiring additional staff to accommodate the new programming and developing an economic development loan program.

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