PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia’s 40-year-old policy of contract quotas for women- and minority-owned businesses has officially been replaced by a policy favoring small, local businesses. Mayor Cherelle Parker signed an executive order on the new policy on Tuesday.
Parker seemed defensive about being the one to dismantle preferences for minority and women businesses. She gave lengthy remarks about the ways she has fought for disadvantaged businesses throughout her career. But after a federal appeals court ruled against the city policy, she said she had no choice.
“I didn’t write those laws. I don’t even support them,” she said. “I don’t agree with them, but as the mayor, it is my job to adjust any programs or policies that put the city of Philadelphia at risk.”
“She didn’t want to do this,” City Solicitor Renee Garcia said of Parker. “I would say you were in anguish. But this is the way forward.”
That said, Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett-Harley gave a stinging critique of the old policy.
“To be quite honest, it was not working,” she said. “The overwhelming majority of the folks who were benefiting the most turned out to be white women — not that we don’t want them to progress, but it was missing the reason it was designed in the first place, to help folks who were struggling in a different way.”
Parker said she actually already had her eye on the old policy, which she believed was not working as intended. Only 20% of the businesses registered as MWBEs (minority- and women-owned business enterprises) were winning contracts.
The executive order is short on specific goals but says the city will establish participation ranges for small, local businesses, and that each department will have a compliance plan. There will be a registry as there was for MWBEs, and businesses on the old registry will be grandfathered in.
A new Office of Business Growth replaces the Office of Minority Business Success, which Parker created when she was first elected.
The African American Chamber of Commerce hosted the executive order signing. Executive Director Regina Hairston, in a statement, said the chamber “is hopeful that Philadelphia’s Black business community will benefit from these new policies, while remaining vigilant of the discriminatory practices that led to the creation of MWBE programs across the nation.”