MESSAGE FROM THE PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR
This Spring 2024 LA Contractor Connection newsletter covers a range of important LA Regional Contractor and Bonding Program ( CDABP ) activities and media coverage from July 1 , 2023 , through December 31 , 2023 , as well as profiling one of our program participants , Veronica Youman of Youman Welding .
In a July 10 , 2023 , story featuring the CDABP , the Los Angeles Times noted , “ The L . A . Regional Contractor Development and Bonding Program provides financial tools and guidance to help small and disadvantaged companies compete for government contracts .” The article described the CDABP ’ s various components and told the stories of two contractors who benefited from the program . Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services ( MWIS ) Founder and CEO Ingrid Merriwether was quoted as saying , “ Our objective is to help [ contractors ] grow and increase their capacity . That means we are going to help them multiple times .” Links to this and other media coverage are provided in this issue ’ s CDABP / MWIS in the News section , on page 42 .
In this issue are also summaries of outreach workshops with local elected officials on page 5 and with LAX on page 13 . LA City Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Paul Krekorian and LA County Supervisors Hilda L . Solis and Janice Hahn hosted outreach workshops about public works contracting . Councilmember Hernandez expressed the common theme of the four workshops when she said , “ We are excited to create new opportunities for contractors . We want to get work done quicker . We want to create more opportunities for our communities . This is the way to do it .” The MWIS team also assisted Los Angeles World Airports ( LAWA ) on several contractor outreach events , which included a pre-proposal conference on a request for proposals ( RFP ) for information technology ( IT ) services .
As part of their role in administering the regional CDABP for the City of Los Angeles , Los Angeles Metro , and the County of Los Angeles , MWIS helps local contractors access public infrastructure contracts . On page 15 , Veronica Youman , CEO of Youman Welding , shares how CDABP assisted her in securing her first public sector project .
The variety of training courses provided by MWIS , such as those about the Contract Financing Assistance Program ( CFAP ), contract management , how disabled veteran business enterprises ( DVBEs ) can connect with LA Metro , construction safety , and on other important
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