Date:
Monday, October 09, 2006
Contact:
Brenda Nnambi, Director Office of Equal Opportunity, 360-705-7090
Eileen Oliver, DMWBE Supervisor, 360-705-7089
OLYMPIA – Effective immediately, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will resume setting Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) participation goals on appropriate federally assisted highway projects.
A DBE goal represents a percentage of the value of a federally assisted contract for which disadvantaged business enterprises should ordinarily participate. In 2005, the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit determined that WSDOT did not have adequate evidence of discrimination and thus, had improperly set DBE contract goals on three highway construction contracts.
In response to this ruling, WSDOT suspended the use of such goals while it investigated the existence of discrimination, as required by the Court of Appeals. Having completed its investigation and compiled statistical and anecdotal evidence to support the DBE program, WSDOT is now in a position to resume its goal setting.
WSDOT’s overall DBE participation goal for federal fiscal year (FFY) 2007, which runs from October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007, is 18.77% for Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) assisted projects.
WSDOT made no change to this year’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) DBE Participation Goal because the goal is set biennially, and was set at 0% for the 2005- 2007 biennium. Similarly, no Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) DBE Participation Goal will be set for FFY 2007 as WSDOT does not anticipate any FAA funded projects meeting the financial threshold being awarded during FFY 2007. Should there be a change in FAA funding during FFY 2007; WSDOT will consider the establishment of a DBE goal.
More information about the DBE goal setting process is available on WSDOT’s Web page at: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/oeo/.
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