DBE Committee/ODOT - DODI Meeting

Monday, April 16, 2018, 10:00 a.m.

OCA Conference Room

 

 

 

M I N U T E S

 

Call to order – 10:04 a.m.

 

  • Minutes approved

 

  • WBE and reciprocation bills in the Ohio Legislature – Discussed recent bills before the Ohio House

     

  • EDGE program – 10 year limitation – This limit has been in place for years but has not been enforced.Recently some DBE Committee members had been notified that the Ohio Department of Administrative Services intended to enforce this provision and remove those firms with more than 10 years in the program.Concern is that there will be very few left in the program, as most companies had been certified longer than 10 years.

     

  • DBEs to report first day on job – ODOT explained that this was being asked of the DBEs because previous efforts to have project personnel and prime contractors notify the District Contract Compliance Officer (CCO) had not been effective.The purpose of the notice is so that a Commercially Useful Function determination can be completed by the ODOT field personnel.Members of the Committee related that various time frames had been given by different districts.Danette Shuler (ODOT) told the group that she would be meeting with the CCOs and would let them know that one week prior to the DBE coming to the job would be requested.It was understood by ODOT that DBE subs are often given short notification times and often had to change schedules at the last minute for a variety of reasons including weather and work sites not being ready for them.Failure to provide this notification is not to be penalized at this time, it is a courtesy to the CCOs to help them perform their job.

     

  • Counting of materials and supplies – The Notice to Industry that had gone out on March 9 was discussed.OOT is in the process of meeting with the DBE Material & Supply Vendors (DBE MSVs) over the next few months to explain what is changing.ODOT agreed they should have provided the notice to the Committee for comment prior to publishing it.Changing the counting of materials and supplies has been discussed with OCA and the Committee in the past, but the details had not been worked out at that point.Chris Engle requested a list of the DBE MSVs in question.Various examples of what would and wouldn’t count as DBE participation moving forward were discussed.

     

  • CRL Prompt Pay and Payroll – status – ODOT is meeting with B2Gnow to discuss their software and provide a demonstration.Currently only 64% of the payrolls are being successfully uploaded to CRL.ODI believes that this change will involve some growing pains but will be implemented much quicker if it decided to make the change.B2Gnow provides the support to make it happen rather than the industry.

     

  • Determination of adequacy of Good Faith Efforts – Tom Yanka from ODI indicated that GFEs at bid time had been few and far between.GFEs were generally not detailed enough to be accepted.Most had occurred on LPA projects.

     

  • Veteran Friendly Business Program – status – No change – ODOT is not using the competitive bidding advantage on State only projects and cannot use it on federal projects.

     

  • Prime Contractor Roundtables – The Committee expressed concern over DBEs being excluded from these meetings.ODOT clarified that they are welcome to attend.OCA will change the notification in the newsletter to reflect this.

     

  • Next meeting – July 16, 10:00 a.m. @ OCA

 

Adjourn – 12:44 p.m.