This content was published: March 20, 2012. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
PCC’s Bond Program aims to boost capacity of MWESB firms in the metro area
Photos and Story by Gina Whitehill-Baziuk
“One of the goals of the college’s bond program is to boost the capacity of minority, women and small business owners and build general contractors, not just subcontractors,” said Linda Degman, Associate Director for the PCC Bond Program at a summit to support minority, women and emerging small businesses (MWESB) in the Portland region.
MWESB Summit hosted at the PCC Downtown Center drew more than 30 people to discuss strategies for removing barriers for minority and women owned businesses.
Degman shared the college’s ambitious goals at a summit on March 2, 2012, hosted at PCC’s Downtown Center with other public and private sector partners to discuss and share practices they have implemented to successfully remove barriers for MWESBs to compete for and comply with government contracts.
“As an educational institution, we actively look for opportunities to support growth and development of smaller minority-owned firms by working alongside more experienced contractors on our campus projects,” explained Degman.
More than 30 people from different government entities, non-profit organizations and private construction companies participated in the event, including representatives from Governor Kitzhaber’s office, City of Portland, City of Hillsboro, Multnomah County, Port of Portland, METRO, Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs, O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders, Fortis Construction and NW Infrastructure.
This summit is the latest in a series of events and meetings for local jurisdictions to share information and collaborate on new and existing policies to make MWESB practices more consistent among different government agencies.
One of two panels included representatives from firms leading joint ventures for campus improvements at PCC sites: (left to right) Bhavna Kumar and Maurice Rahming, O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders; Michael Martin, NW Instrastructure; Rob Fallow, Fortis Construction; and Brandon Flint, Inline Construction.
John Persen, a summit facilitator and MWESB Procurement Coordinator for the PCC Bond Program emphasized that, “events like this are important to share best practices, which saves time and money by not having to recreate the wheel. Benchmarking creates consistency, making it easier for everyone to understand and participate in the bidding process and meet the objectives of business diversity initiatives.”
Summit dialogue centered on two panels that included panelists Rob Fallow with Fortis Construction; Michael Martin with NW Infrastructure; Brandon Flint with Inline Construction; and Bhavna Kumar and Maurice Rahming with O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders, all of whom are currently participating in joint ventures as Construction Managers/General Contractors at different PCC campuses. Panelists fielded prepared questions, as well as comments from summit participants regarding PCC’s innovative CM/GC process, and their joint ventures and partnership strategies with MWESB contractors.
“Capacity building is one of the goals for government entities, but it can’t necessarily be quantified. Building capacity isn’t just a metric or statistic. At the end of the day, more has been accomplished between the JV and the subcontractor than the stats can show,” said Fallow.
Michael Martin offered another non-statistical way to measure capacity building. “Have the agency take a ‘picture’ of the small firm at the beginning of the project. By the end of the job, that picture should look different. This process is able to start one way and finish with increased capacity that puts the company in a better position,” for the future.
Coming down the Pipeline
A second panel included representatives from different government entities working on MWESB policies and programs: Barbara Gibson, City of Portland ; Kathy Kiaunis, PCC Bond Program; Tom Peterso, Port of Portland ; and Sophia Cavalli, Multnomah County
PCC is hosting a construction kick-off event and MWESB workshops for each of the college’s campuses and centers to inform and engage the MWESB contractors as well as local community vendors and contractors surrounding PCC sites. People will have an opportunity to network with PCC project managers and CM/GCs.
Sylvania campus is hosting the first event on March 22, 8:30-10 am, where Linda Gerber, Campus President will welcome guests, followed by Linda Degman, who will provide a PCC Bond overview. Gary Sutton, Bond Project Manager for Sylvania will talk about Sylvania campus specifically and CM/GC Howard S. Wright Construction will share the latest construction time frames and schedules, including slated projects for spring and summer 2012.
Sylvania – Wednesday, April 11, 8:30 – 10 am, Oak, Elm and Fir rooms off of the cafeteria in the College Center building
Rock Creek – Tuesday, May 8, 8:30 – 10 am, Event Center (Building 9), Rock Creek Campus.
In the next three months, PCC bond project managers will be scheduling events and workshops for the other two college locations –Cascade and Southeast Center, where tens of millions of bond dollars will be spent over the next three to five years.
For more information, contact John Persen by email.