Speech on Minority Business Development

March 21, 2005

A lot of people who have served in elected positions say that they are in favor of minority business development, and that’s great – to say that you are in favor of minority business development – but in our city, more than any other city in America, I do believe, we can actually prove every year the strides that we are making in achieving minority development.

When all of our City Departments come to Citistat on a bi-weekly basis, the very first line on the templates that they – the command staff of the city – present to us are the numbers that they have achieved to date in Women’s and Minority Business enterprises. If this is a City priority, then it also has to be a priority of our City Departments and that’s the transformation we’ve been able to bring about.

I challenge anyone here to go ask our great State. What have you done on minority business contracting last year? How did that compare to the year before? Let alone, how did that compare to last month or the month before that?

It’s not so much about saying you’re in favor or minority business development. It’s about being able to tap the wealth of talent, opportunity, and business that exists in our diverse Sate and our diverse Cty in order to expand opportunity for everyone.

This is not something to do in order to create more opportunities for the next generation of African American citizens; so much as it is something we do to create more opportunity for the next generation of all of our citizens.

We want all of our children, whether they’re African American, or Hispanic, or White or another ethnic background, to grow up in a world where there is more opportunity for everyone…where everyone, regardless of race or gender, has an opportunity to build a better America for themselves and for their families. Because when people do that for their own families, they also make the country, state, and city stronger for our families.

In 2001, we put teeth in our effort to empower Minority Business. We issued an Executive Order immediately directing all city agencies to make it their goal to award a percentage of city contracts and to diversify their contractor pool more accurately. We also created the Mayor’s office of Minority Business Development. As a result of this effort, we, as a people, we, as a city, have been able to come to you each and every year and tell you of the strides we are making.

Are we where we want to be yet? No, we’re not. But we are making progress, and that is what people in this State elect our leaders to do – to make progress.

Today, I am pleased to say that each year our Minority Business community continues to grow, continues to thrive, and continues to do the job, do it well, do it with value, do it within cost and on time. And that is a tremendous tribute to each and every one of them.

We would not be making be making strides like this as a City were it not for the talented Women and Minority Business owners who go out there and play by the rules and make sure that they deliver on time, under contract.

In 2001, we awarded $44.7 million in city contracts to Minority and Women owned businesses. Not bad, but we knew that we could do better. And we have. Last year, we awarded more than $83 million in city contracts to Minority and Women owned businesses. That is nearly a doubling of dollars spent just the three years prior.

Imagine what that says about the future if we can keep up that pace of progress, just as we have been, in making the city safer and better educating our children. When it comes to expanding opportunity in our city, we are empowering those businesses not only to supply goods and services to the city, but also to become true partners in some of the largest redevelopment projects in our city.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Any city that ceases to build declines.” What you see today going on in Baltimore is not a city that ceases to build, but a city that is bursting with new development, redevelopment, rehabs, and new investment in our city. $7.2 billion when we last checked the speedometer on redevelopment.

Today, of the 45 projects receiving support for the taxpayers of our city, the majority of who happen to be African American, 1 in 4 of the 45 projects have minority equity participation. That’s participation in ownership; that is the potential for legacy development representing the $815 million or 72 percent of the total investment for all BDC projects. Which means, my friends in the minority business community, my fellow Baltimoreans who have inherited the legacy of the battle of Baltimore, that you are rebuilding our city. This is not something the government is giving to you. YOU are rebuilding OUR city, for the benefit of all of our citizens. So in addition there’s been an increase of 150 percent to the dollar, an amount of subcontracts at Baltimore’s Department of Housing and Community Development, from $835,000 in 2000 to $12.8 million in 2004.

Four years ago, we said that we wanted Minority Business owners, developers and contractors to know that Baltimore is a great place to do business. And we have seen great success so far. There is really unlimited potential for growth here in Baltimore, and as fortunate as all of this is to our city, it’s also fortunate to our country. Amid the wave of cynicism and the worshiping of greed as the new great American value, our success as diverse and free people who choose to be stronger together, really sends a loud and proud message to the entire country, to your fellow Americans in other cities whose leadership may say, “Well, we’re not sure whether we can do that.” We can point to ourselves and say, “Well, we are quite sure that we can.”

Thank you all very much.

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