The St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) assumed direct control of the city’s Minority and Women’s Business Enterprise (M/WBE) Compliance Program on July 1.
Under the Mayor’s Executive Order 28, SLDC, the city’s economic development agency, is responsible for administering and enforcing the City’s M/WBE participation policy and monitoring developers’ achievement of the city’s participation goals: 25 percent minority and five percent women on all city-funded development and public works projects.
Compliance monitoring was performed by SLDC until 2001, when the duties were consolidated at the Lambert St. Louis International Airport Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) office. That responsibility has been moved back to SLDC.
Airport Compliance Manager Francoise Lyle-Wiggins moved to SLDC as the M/WBE Compliance manager, supervising two additional staff members. The compliance function will be part of the SLDC Minority Business Development department. The Airport DBE Office will continue to conduct M/WBE certification.
“The move, coupled with adding two additional monitors, should result in a higher level of compliance and oversight,” said Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis branch of the NAACP and a minority inclusion advocate.
“The monitoring and compliance responsibilities being recentralized under SLDC, as originally intended by the Executive Order, also resolves the FAA audit concerns with respect to any potential co-mingling of administrative costs of the M/WBE Office with the DBE Office.”
The DBE Office administers a federal program mainly associated with airport-related contracting and any federally funded capital improvement projects conducted by the Board of Public Service. The M/WBE Office administers the contracting compliance under the Mayor’s Executive Order.
When the two activities were merged, SLDC entered into a memorandum of understanding with the DBE Office to administer M/WBE-related activities – thereby creating for FAA auditors the task of determining if any administrative activities and costs of the federal program were co-mingled with the local program.
“The issue of being able to quantify that a clear separation existed in every aspect of these activities has been raised by FAA auditors on a number of occasions,” Pruitt said. “Thus, returning M/WBE compliance squarely back in the hands of SLDC and its fiscal administrative arm resolves the FAA’s concerns.”
Tony Thompson, CEO and chairman of Kwame Building Group, which does steady business with the city, said where the compliance program is administered matters less than who is actually doing the work.
“What’s most important,” Thompson said, “ is that the city have trained, experienced compliance officers who know what they are looking for.”
The M/WBE Compliance staff can be reached at SLDC offices, 1520 Market St., Suite 2000, 314-657-3700.
