The City of Bellevue's vision starts with the statement "Bellevue welcomes the world. Our diversity is our strength." The city is now refining its Procurement Diversity Inclusion plan to better ensure a diverse range of businesses can compete for city contracts.
The diversity of our residents, culture and economy is fundamental to the success of our community. The city spends approximately $120 million annually for goods and services of many types, including public works construction. Bellevue also upholds federal, state and local regulations that require transparent competition among businesses vying for city contracts.
In 2016, we adopted a procurement inclusion plan to ensure all businesses, including small businesses and those owned by women, minorities or veterans and other disadvantaged businesses have fair access to contracting opportunities with the city. The plan was intended to invigorate our outreach to firms, foster more equitable processes and better track who we hired to gauge our progress.
Based on input from staff, the City Council and businesses, the city has identified the need to evolve and expand the procurement inclusion plan to better serve the diverse needs of our business community. We are now working to enhance our Procurement Diversity Inclusion Plan. By promoting a more inclusive economy, we will enrich our entire community. More details about the effort can be found in Frequently Asked Questions.
Plan Update Process
The city will conduct intensive outreach to a variety of businesses around the region to gain a profound understanding of the unique needs and challengers they face doing business with Bellevue. Informed by this feedback, we will develop a set of policy and strategic recommendations to improve the plan.
We will then re-engage with our stakeholders to share the recommendations before presenting them to the City Council along with an overview of what we heard during our outreach efforts. Based on the feedback and direction received from the council, we will revise the procurement inclusion plan and begin implementation.
Input Wanted
Meaningful change is often collaborative, and for this effort input from businesses, both those who have won contracts with the city or those would like to, is invaluable. Organizations and people thinking of starting businesses are also welcome to make suggestions. Together, we can make a positive impact on the future of Bellevue's procurement practices.
To gather input, the city is holding virtual community events on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 and 2. Please register to attend one. The city is also hosting an online survey.