An expert panel will discuss the state of St. Pete’s small and minority-owned businesses, Tuesday, April 27, 6:00 to 7:15 pm (Click here to register). Above: Panelists Theresa Jones, former City of St. Pete MBE Coordinator; Jessica Eilerman, Mayor’s Small Business Liaison; and Dr. Cynthia Johnson, Director, Pinellas County Office of Small Business & Supplier Diversity.
The City of St. Petersburg may soon have one of the largest Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) programs in Central Florida, thanks to a convergence of timing. With pending decisions about Tropicana Field redevelopment and the campaign for a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) policy, a top-of-mind question for many is whether St. Pete actually has what it takes to reach substantial MBE goals. Both in terms of the size of the city’s black construction sector and in terms of the city’s resolve to tough it out.
Even the staunchest equity allies have doubts. Not only is St. Pete one of the few large cities in Florida that does not have an MBE program in place.
But even when it did have one (1982 to 1999), it was a rocky road, involving legal challenges, public pushback from MBEs, and several waves of white affirmative action backlash.
Partly as a result, St. Pete has seen a steady exodus of black contractors over the past two decades as several of our best and brightest sought (and found) work elsewhere.
Jonathan and James Graham are prime examples of the trend. The two brothers grew up in St. Petersburg. Their firm, HORUS Construction, headquartered in Tampa, is one of the largest black-owned construction firms in Florida.
Yet HORUS had never won the opportunity to lead a project in St. Petersburg until this month, when St. Pete’s City Council approved their contract to begin design of the Sankofa project on the Deuces.
Though things are beginning to change, James says he and other minority contractors have long seen St. Petersburg and Pinellas County as “closed markets” for MBEs. “We’ve done over 50 projects for Hillsborough County Schools, right across the bridge, but could never break through to win a project in St. Petersburg.”
In the early 1970s, construction contractors were the third largest group of black-owned businesses in St. Pete, representing 20% of all black owned enterprises in the city. They remained 18.5% of St. Pete’s black-owned businesses in 1990.
But black-owned contractors were only 5% of African American entrepreneurs in St. Pete by 2012. The latest data show only eight black-owned contracting firms with paid workers (versus 23 in 1972).
Tuesday’s panel will delve into these and other major trends. The session will cover a brief history of the City’s MBE program and new developments over the past three years that appear to be reversing the trend. Panelists will answer live questions from attendees as well.
As examples, the recent win by HORUS was the largest ever City contract with a black-owned firm. The Pinellas County Office of Small Business & Supplier Diversity, though still race-neutral, has multiplied its small and minority business spending since 2018. And the City St. Petersburg is poised to release the findings of its third Disparity Study this spring, which may enable a re-start of its long dormant MBE program (shuttered in 1999).
The April 27th Zoom gathering is the second of three meetings of the St. Petersburg CBA Policy Council. Dialogue will be used in the formulation of recommendations to the Kriseman administration on modifications to the still-draft CBA policy. To participate, register here.
