MESSAGE FROM THE PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR
How do municipalities create an ecosystem, in a race and gender-neutral environment, that removes barriers that have historically prevented small and local contractors from accessing infrastructure construction contracts?
By implementing what Ingrid Merriwether says are the three Ps: the right policies, the right practices, and the right programs. Merriwether presides over the Los Angeles Regional Contractor Development Program’ s( CDABP’ s) administrator, Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services( MWIS), a Hub International Company. Since 1996( the year Proposition 209 passed), MWIS has been troubleshooting with California municipalities to identify and implementing these“ three Ps.”
MWIS works closely with the CDABP’ s three participating municipalities: the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Metro, and the County of Los Angeles. Our work continues to produce a range of benefits. By enabling more small and local contractors to bid on public works projects, the CDABP creates an expanded pool of qualified firms, leading to greater competition; this, in turn, promotes more creativity and innovation and leads to lower contracting costs, thereby saving taxpayers significant money. The CDABP also creates more equitable job opportunities within local communities and fosters more robust local economies – a multiplicative impact of contracting dollars remaining local.
This Fall 2025 issue of the Los Angeles Contractor Connection provides an overview of our efforts during the first half of 2025.
A key component of our work is conducting outreach workshops with elected officials, such as those held with the offices of L. A. County Supervisors Janice Hahn, Kathryn Barger, and Hilda L. Solis, as well as L. A. City Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez, Eunisses Hernandez, and Heather Hutt. On page 5, we provide snapshots from these six workshops.
Another aspect of our work is providing educational training. In the first 6 months of 2025, MWIS held 10 training sessions on the following: getting contract ready with the LA Department of Water and Power( LADWP), bonding, bidding and estimating with the City of LA, marketing, managing the back office, understanding insurance, bidding and estimating with LA Metro, principals of bidding and estimating, certified payroll and labor compliance, and the impact of safety in the industry. We’ ve provided a recap of four of these training sessions on page 23.
As continuing education for our contractors, you will find the informative article“ Quality Control as a Troubleshooting Tool” on page 9.
Cover image: INSSKI Construction team providing structural repairs to three public-use boat docks at Marina del Rey for the L. A. County Department of Beaches and Harbors. See story on page 12.
02- imwis. com