JUNE 24-30, 2024 8 · SBJ.NET NEWS Make a splash this summer with better guidance & smarter decisions. YOU DESERVE BETTER abacus.cpa 417.449.CPAS (2727) Antidiscrimination policy guides airport contracts by Karen Craigo · kcraigo@sbj.net At the Springfield-Branson National Airport, as at all U.S. airports, a focus on diversity is business as usual through the disadvantaged business enterprise program. Joy Latimer, assistant city attorney for the airport, is responsible for ensuring the airport meets targets for the Federal Aviation Administration’s civil rights program, which includes maintaining compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and contracting with businesses owned by qualifying disadvantaged business owners. The DBE program is the U.S. Department of Transportation’s method of complying with Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. The DBE program has two components, one for construction and one for airport concessions. DBE goals are part of a Title VI plan Latimer crafts every three years, and public meetings are conducted for input, Latimer said. For construction, the DBE goal is 6%, meaning that for any federally funded construction program, 6% of funds must go to businesses that are certified as disadvantaged businesses. Recipients of federal funds, like the airport, are required to set their own DBE goals for contractors, subcontractors and agency partners and must also monitor the results, according to the Department of Transportation. To qualify and be certified as a DBE, the DOT states, 51% of a business must be owned by one or more people who are socially or economically disadvantaged, and the management and daily business operations of the business must be controlled by one or more of the disadvantaged business owners, which includes women and minority group members. The DOT website characterizes the DBE program as the strongest tool it has for creating a level playing field in its distribution of a substantial amount of public funds for the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration and the FAA. Airport targets As noted, construction contractors working at the airport must be 6% DBE certified. That is the policy for any project for which the airport receives federal funds or grant money, which is anything inside the airfield, Latimer said. “Six percent of what we pay them has to go to a registered DBE,” she said. The airport concessions DBE program has two separate targets, she said: 0.4% for rental car companies and 2.7% for non-rental car concessionaires, including the airport coffee shop, two gift shops, two restaurants and the parking company. The targets can be hard to hit, she said, although the airport is in compliance. “We’ve improved on the rental car side, but we’re still struggling in the regular concessions side,” Latimer said. She noted it doesn’t matter if a business self-identifies as disadvantaged; that status must be certified by the government through an application process to count toward the airport’s goals. “It’s sort of out of our hands,” she said. “We don’t contract directly with anyone besides our concessionaires.” The DOT has operated its DBE program for more than two decades. The Missouri Regional Certification Committee, which operates a unified certification program for the state’s DBE certifying agencies, including MoDOT, listed 1,338 certified DBE firms in 2022, and 917 of those had home offices within the state, according to MoDOT. Although the coffee shop, Travellers House Coffee & Tea, is local, Latimer noted the gift shops are run by an international company, which the airport website lists as The Paradies Shops, and restaurants are operated by a national company, Tailwind Concessions. The airport’s rental car agencies are listed on its website as Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Dollar Rent a Car, Hertz, National/Alamo, Payless and Thrifty. When companies are not themselves DBEs, they have to meet the airport’s goals by purchasing goods from registered companies, Latimer said. Attainable goal Brian Hutsell, St. Louis-based senior aviation engineer with Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc., said for construction contracts, achieving the DBE participation target is typically attainable, depending on the type of project. Participation is commonly seen in landscaping, electrical materials and pavement accessory supply, concrete crushing and materials hauling and trucking, he said. Occasionally, there are smaller projects that may not lend themselves to DBE participation, Hutsell said, but the three-year program maintained by airports allows for some variation in participation levels from project to project. Hutsell said CMT works with other teams for professional services to meet the airport’s DBE requirements. Most are in St. Louis or Kansas City, with one long-term partner in Springfield. FAA requires inclusion of disadvantaged businesses See DBE on page 41 Joy Latimer: Disadvantaged business targets can be hard to hit with airport concessions.
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