Following weeks of emotionally charged deliberations, legal concerns and calls for clarity and consensus, the Houston City Council will finally vote on key amendments to the city’s Minority- and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) program.
Ahead of the vote, which could potentially decide the program’s future, Black leaders from the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce and the Houston chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) extended their support during a public meeting on May 6.
Speakers highlighted the continued underutilization of Black-owned, Native American and women-owned businesses in city contracting, citing data-based evidence from a 2024 disparity study. They urged the City Council to adopt the study’s findings and preserve the program’s integrity.
A quick recap
The 2024 disparity study reported that Asian Americans in professional services, Hispanics in construction and white women in goods reached the target goals and could no longer be categorized as facing disparities. The changes to the program propose moving these Hispanic, Asian and white women-owned businesses into a race-neutral small business program.
The study also found that Black-owned businesses received only 5.55% of city contract dollars across all procurement categories, well below their availability in the market. Black firms received just 5.28% of city spending in construction and 7.57% in professional services. This data highlights what Councilmember Tiffany Thomas called a “deep disparity.”
While the City Council decides the M/WBE program’s fate, a legal battle is underway. A lawsuit, Landscape Consultants of Texas, et al. Inc. v. Harris County, filed by white contractors Jerry and Theresa Thompson, accuses the city of hiring businesses based on race and seeks to end the M/WBE program.
Houston City Attorney Arturo Michel indicated that accepting the findings of the 2024 disparity study will help the city’s defense in the lawsuit and highlight its necessity. If the City Council rejects it in its vote, the lawsuit must depend on the findings of a 2006 disparity study that the city’s M/WBE program is currently running on.
What will the City Council vote on?
The City Council will vote to amend Chapter 15 of the Code of Ordinances, which deals with contracts and procurements for minority, women and small business participation in city contracting. The ordinance amendment will accept the findings of the disparity study, include a veteran-owned business enterprise program, adopt new goals for the M/WSBE program based on the study’s findings, add wrap-around programs for micro and small businesses and allow the OBO more time to consider feedback on goal credit participation for small businesses.
What speakers said
In response to “misinformation” circulating in the community, multiple speakers and councilmembers clarified that an amendment to the ordinance will not eliminate any groups from the program yet.
Groups like the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce disagreed with the disparity study’s data and findings.
“At the end of the day, provide a level playing field so everyone can go in and compete,” said Dr. Laura Murillo, president and CEO of the group. “But let’s not say Hispanics are doing well, Asians are doing well and women are doing well. That is not the case.”
On the other hand, Black leaders voiced strong support for accepting the study but continuing it in its current form while developing more inclusive strategies to help Black-owned businesses.
“It [the program] was drafted because of historical systemic discrimination disparity,” said NAACP Houston President Rev. James Dixon. “We need to pass this ordinance, we need to move forward, but we need to move forward talking about what’s possible as opposed to what’s simply the problem has been.”
Donald R. Naylor, Jr., a member of the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, emphasized preserving the M/WBE program and pushed for the ordinance to pass.
“We know this process hasn’t worked perfectly, but we believe it. The substantial efforts involving the data examination process have been done in good faith and with sincere effort,” Naylor said. “Clearly, we understand that Black-owned, women-owned and Native American businesses have not been at parity and are lagging behind. Therefore, we must fix the problem and we must do it together…When small businesses thrive, our communities collectively thrive.”
Community leaders also stressed that rejecting the study or misrepresenting its recommendations could jeopardize the entire program. Cylenthia Hoyrd, director of the OBO, previously warned that failing to update the ordinance in line with the new study could set Houston back by 40 years and leave the city legally vulnerable in the ongoing litigation.
Extending support for small businesses, Rev. Dr. Angela Ravin-Anderson, a leader in the Social Justice Ministry at the Third Ward-based Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, said the M/WBE program helps businesses overcome barriers to opportunity.
“The idea of the program was that all of our groups that are experiencing disparity would at some point reach the ability to have fair representation and opportunities to do business with our city,” Ravin-Anderson said. “We understand that small businesses are the backbone of our communities and we support this ordinance.”
It is safe to say that the City Council’s vote will not be favorable to everyone. Still, it will take a step forward to preserve a program born from decades of advocacy or proceed to a lawsuit with an outdated disparity study.
Dixon summarized the outcome: “There is no perfect pathway to where we’re going, but we can’t get to where we’re going unless we all push the car forward together.”
