AGENCY SPOTLIGHT
Ingrid Merriwether Speaks with Supervisor Shamann Walton : Supporting Diversity , Equity & Inclusion and Local Small Business Contracting
Ingrid Merriwether , CEO Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services
Supervisor Shamann Walton , President of San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Shamann Walton is the President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and a longtime champion for local ( LBE ), small ( SBE ) and minority-owned ( MBE ) businesses . Ingrid Merriwether is President and CEO of Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services , administrators of the City and County of San Francisco ’ s Contractor Development Program ( CDP ), which offers a range of technical and development assistance to help small local and diverse contractors meet City and County project requirements . In December 2021 , the two met virtually to discuss the City ’ s ongoing commitment to Diversity , Equity & Inclusion ( DEI ) and efforts to encourage greater LBE , SBE and MBE participation in public works projects .
Ingrid Merriwether : San Francisco has a progressive history of promoting diversity , equity and inclusion and contracting participation of small local businesses , but we are reaching out to help maintain that vital connection between the LBE community and City officials . Since you ’ ve been an outspoken advocate for small , local and minority-owned businesses , we wanted to engage with you to provide our local contracting community with an update on your efforts within your Bayview Hunters Point district and throughout the city .
Shamann Walton : We recently made changes to the City ’ s
14B Local Business Enterprise Ordinance to make it easier for our small contractors by ensuring that our big businesses are paying them on time and are not initially bidding with small contractors to meet our requirements and then cutting them off once the contract has been awarded . We ’ ve been raising our thresholds for small contractor participation in professional services contracts . We did this work collectively with our LBE , SBE and MBE community so that everyone would be on the same page before we pushed for these changes .
Within my district we also have EDOT ,
Economic Development on Third , a non-profit entity that our office makes sure has the resources to provide façade renovations , small construction work and other assistance to help our community small businesses look and run better . We publicize vacancies and make sure people know about opportunities available within our commercial corridors , such as Leland , 18th Street and 3rd Street . In fact , when most commercial corridors lost businesses during the pandemic , we were fortunate to open new businesses – our 3rd Street corridor added
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