Small, Minority Business Initiative Gains Momentum
May 2016
By David Zaslawsky
Cannon Janitorial Services owner Orlando Cannon learned about the importance of it’s who you know to increase his company’s revenue.
He had met and talked to John Foshee, who operates Foshee Design & Construction and he is somebody you want to know if you’re in the trades. His company, among other things, is working a number of projects on Dexter Avenue in downtown Montgomery. Cannon pursued a working relationship with Foshee. “I have lots of people depending on me,” Cannon said. “I have about 25 people working and they depend on me. I’ve got a wife and I’ve got a 97-year-old mother that lives with me and she’s depending on me.”
Finally, Cannon and Foshee talked. Cannon, a minority business owner, was hired as a subcontractor. Meanwhile, Cannon hired No Streaks Window Cleaning Service, another minority-owned company, to help him with the Foshee project. “I’m looking for opportunities,” Cannon said.
He talked about the importance of building a relationship with other business owners – a relationship that benefits both parties. Cannon said that the city’s Small and Minority Business Initiative helps people being “put in front of the right people.” Those larger contractors who rely on smaller businesses.
Cannon now handles the majority of janitorial services for Foshee, according to retired Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Charles Price, who is a senior adviser to Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange and vice chairman of the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce. That connection has resulted in other businesses contacting Cannon about janitorial services, Price said.
That’s the goal of the city’s program: to not only increase minority participation in city contracts, but to more importantly connect small- and minority-owned businesses with larger companies in the private sector. The city’s goal is to award 30 percent of its contracts to small- and minority-owned firms – the same goal as Montgomery County and its contracts. The contracts awarded by the city and county are limited, and that’s why it’s so important to build relationships with private sector companies.
“I’ve been working on these type of issues for 30 years,” said Price, who runs the program along with Doug Moore. “This is not what you call a dog-and-pony, show-and-tell type of program we have here. This is serious business.”
Yes, it is. Bell Transmission owner Eddie Bell, who has been in business since 1971, said that the program “really helped my business and I really appreciate it. It works.”
The city divided roofing repair work into smaller contracts to get those small- and minority-owned firms an opportunity to bid on them instead of having one large contract.
“This is just the beginning,” Strange said about the program during a news conference at City Hall.
Arthur Thomas, owner of Arthur Thomas Construction, said his minority-owned firm is working on the Kress building project for ELSAJA Properties, a Marjam subsidiary. He said he “likes to be a part of” the projects.
Before the initiative, Thomas did not know Marjam. “If Thomas participated at all, it was as an employee, but now he has a major contract and he can hire other minority small businesses in the business he knows well to help him on his project and introduce them to other contractors,” Price said. “It’s a snowball effect.”
Price said that the program “has gotten off to a more successful start” than similar programs in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio and Mississippi. “This (program) has been working and this program has been highly successful.”
The key factor is building those all-important relationships between the business owners and that process began during the seven or eight “meet and greets,” according to Moore.
“We know that everything starts with relationships,” said Moore, chief operating officer of the Moore Zeigler Group. He talked about “just having a conversation; just get to know each other. It’s all about relationships.”
The program was launched a year ago and Strange wanted to share some early success stories.
When the $5 million Montgomery Justice Center was first bid, only 12 to 15 percent of the contracts went to small- and minority-owned companies. That was increased to about 25 percent.
“This is not a one-year program,” Price told the Montgomery Advertiser. “This is a work in progress and will continue for years to come.”
He praised the large contractors for being a part of the program and also cited the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce’s participation, including assisting small and minority business owners through the Business Resource Center. Chamber officials “are enthusiastic about this program,” Price said.
Now, Moore is talking to banks to help those business owners obtain financing so they can bid on projects.
0Program Works to ‘Change the Culture’
May 2016
By David Zaslawsky
Photography by Robert Fouts
Simply put, having more people working raises the standard of living. “If people aren’t working or don’t share in the economic prosperity of the City of Montgomery, you’re going to continue to have decaying neighborhoods, high-crime rates and more of the undesirable things in your community,” said retired Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Charles Price, who along with Doug Moore operates the city’s small and minority business initiative.
“But when people feel they’re being given opportunities and treated fairly and also participate in developing the future of Montgomery, I think it will change some of these social ills in the city. And that’s my approach – to help this city – build up the spirit and the willingness for people in Montgomery to work together and to be able to be successful.”
For people to work together, and in this case, it’s larger firms working with smaller firms, it comes down to communication. Those companies – large and small – have been meeting with each other. “The point is this: You have to get people talking and understanding each other,” said Price, who retired after 31 years as a judge. “In Montgomery, what the problem has been is that people haven’t been talking to each other. You don’t know what a person can do unless you talk to him.
“Now we have a channel of communication, and at some point it will make it good for the whole city. That’s what I’m trying to create. The whole idea is to expand economic opportunities.”
Although the city’s program is just a year old, it has already “met more successes in one year than I anticipated,” he said. “You have to change the culture. I thought it would take two years to really start peeling back the old ways and (begin) new thinking and change the culture in Montgomery as it relates to opportunities for small and minority business.
“The expectation was that it was going to take at least two years to educate enough large businesses and small businesses and city department heads about what we were doing and what the program is about.”
The program is about increasing the participation of small and minority firms in both the public sector and private sector. “Rather than just being employed, I wanted to help a segment of people – small and minority businesses – participate on the employer side as opposed to the employee side,” Price said.
He talked about the importance of people working; being able to buy a home or rent an apartment in a “decent, livable complex”; support a family; and buy schoolbooks and uniforms for their children. “All of those things that bring benefits to those who are working,” said Price, who grew up in Montgomery.
He said that he asked the mayor for a resolution about a 30 percent participation rate from small and minority businesses in city contracts and projects involving the city. That resolution was unanimously passed by the Montgomery City Council. “In a city like Montgomery in the deep South, and all the turmoil we’ve had dealing with civil rights, etc., on the record now the City Council has approved a resolution – that’s what was significant about it,” Price said.
He insisted that the program is not about quotas and “taking jobs and opportunities from mainstream individuals.” He said to make the program successful, there had to be buy-in from large and small companies as well as city department heads “that you’re not intruding on their traditional way of doing things. A bureaucratic system is hard to change. I’m delighted we are at this point.”
