Press Room

Commissioner Adrian Garcia Increases the Utilization of Certified Small Businesses & MWBE since January 1, 2019

HARRIS COUNTY, TX - Commissioner Adrian Garcia is committed to encouraging and supporting small, minority, and women-owned businesses across Precinct 2, creating jobs and strengthening the economy as part of his overall efforts to promote economic opportunity.

“I didn’t want our MWBE efforts to be ‘business-as-usual,’ so I tasked my team to track payments to contractors, not just commitments,” said Commissioner Garcia. “All too often, I’ve seen MWBE commitments left unfulfilled, and I believe the true measure of success for a MWBE program is in payments being released to certified firms.”

Since becoming Commissioner, Precinct 2 has released $16,949,297.20 to MWBE firms out of $46,885,277.84 in contract payments to Certified Prime Contractors. Commissioner Garcia also tasked his Precinct 2 Purchasing Department to develop aggressive internal vendor outreach efforts on all contracts, including small purchases under $50,000. The new efforts included training sessions for vendors, social media outreach campaigns, as well as cold-calling vendors within the different certified databases and to businesses that are located within Precinct 2.

“When I came into office, I wanted to strengthen the local economy of Precinct 2, and one of the best ways is to make sure all businesses get an opportunity to do work with the county and provide competition.” The new vendor outreach efforts were implemented March 1, 2019 at the start of Fiscal Year 2020-2021 by the committed personnel of Precinct 2 and have exceeded all expectations. The percentage of payments to certified firms continues to increase each Commissioner’s Court. “Being a Small, MWBE business is a strength, not a weakness. When we empower local businesses to compete for County contracts, we create a better Precinct 2 for everyone,” said Commissioner Garcia.

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