Growing DBEs: GoTriangle builds relationships with disadvantaged and minority-owned business contractors for mutual benefit

Growing DBEs: GoTriangle builds relationships with disadvantaged and minority-owned business contractors for mutual benefit

Jonathan Harmon had been working as a GoTriangle contractor for about three years when Facilities Manager Oshun Williams popped the question: Would he consider becoming certified as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise?

The DBE program – created by the U.S. Department of Transportation – is designed to create a level playing field by providing small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals an opportunity to compete for local, state or federal funding in DOT-assisted contracts.

At first, Harmon, the owner and president of JL Service Group Inc., a Durham-based heating and air conditioning business he founded, didn’t give the proposal much thought as the daily running of his company consumed his time. But Williams was insistent, coming back repeatedly with the same question.  Harmon says he eventually decided to apply for DBE certification – along with certifications as a Minority Business Enterprise and Historically Underutilized Business – and gained them all in 2021. It’s a move he says has opened up business opportunities that otherwise would have been unavailable.

“We really do take our hat off to Oshun because we didn’t know anything about the MBE, DBE program,” says Harmon, who is in business with his wife, Brandi, the company’s design associate. “If it wasn’t for him putting the pressure on us to get that done, then we wouldn’t be where we are right now.”

Since gaining the certifications, Harmon says he’s been awarded several City of Charlotte projects through a general contractor that he says probably would never have given him the opportunity had he not had those credentials.

“We’ve been able to meet their needs, and from what we’re hearing from them, they like reaching out to us because we’re responsive,” Harmon says. 

As an agency receiving federal transportation funds, GoTriangle is required to contract with DBEs and set goals each year for the percentage of its spending that goes to DBEs. To help nurture and grow the supply of DBE-certified businesses, GoTriangle has held outreach efforts, including a 2021 webinar, to help DBE owners navigate the procurement process and is planning an in-person event 10 a.m. to noon, June 14 at its corporate offices in Durham for those wanting to grow their DBE certified businesses. Finding and attracting DBE contractors benefits GoTriangle because these small-business owners are local and tend to be responsive, just as JL Services Group has been, Williams says.

“We’ve run into a lot of situations where we’ve had HVAC emergencies, and they’ve responded in the middle of the night,” he says. “Normally, it’s no way possible I would have gotten that turnaround time from a big vendor. They’re an excellent team to reach back for information, give advice to help GoTriangle save money and just move forward.”

After seeing JL Service Group’s excellent HVAC work in two GoTriangle buildings, Williams contracted with Brandi Harmon to do a small redesign job in its headquarters Plaza building. After seeing the results, Williams gave her more redesign jobs. Her work has moved from the Plaza’s board room to the paratransit operators’ break and sleep room to the entrance lobby, and she is contracted to redesign other areas of the building.

The Harmons are one of about six new DBE contractors that Williams recruited, or who have been referred to him, through his personal network formed from working about 25 years in the

construction industry. In May, Candice Gulley, who recently gained DBE certification, said a friend referred her to Williams. A partner with her father in their family-owned business, Raleigh-based Gulley’s Backhoe Services, Gulley is looking forward to working with GoTriangle and Williams.

“The conversations I’ve had with him, it seems like it’s going to be a great working relationship,” she says. “A lot of the times, you find these companies don’t even want to entertain [the idea of] a minority sub [contractor]. But he was actually excited to hear from me and to take my information and definitely willing to help. That’s rare. A lot of the times, they won’t talk to you.”

Finding and growing DBE participation at GoTriangle is a team effort, says Sylvester Goodwin, director of GoTriangle’s DBE program, which is designed to ensure that minorities and women-owned businesses are aware of contracting opportunities.  

“Oshun is our front-line ambassador responsible for persuading contractors to become DBE certified,” Goodwin says. “David Moore, our procurement manager, and his staff also play a pivotal role in the process. David initiated an online process that allows the DBE office to see all requisitions before I sign off on them. This process provides an opportunity to look at all purchases to see if we can use a DBE firm to do the work and then to provide a quote on the project. If I happen to miss anything, David or his staff promptly informs me if the purchase is an opportunity to include DBEs.”

Moore says a change to GoTriangle’s requisition form process about a year ago to require Goodwin’s approval has yielded more DBE participation.

“He was added to the chain of approvals in that process,” Moore says. “So we know, right at the beginning of the process, that any money that we spend, we are able to go out and see if we can get DBE participation on the project. Sylvester will know, because he sees the procurement right at the beginning of when it’s about to start. If there’s any option for DBE participation, it will be listed on this form, and he would set up a goal for us to reach for whatever that project may be.”

According to Federal Transit Administration guidelines, GoTriangle is required to develop DBE goals for a three-year federal fiscal year period. GoTriangle’s overall DBE agency goal from FFY2019 to FFY2021 was 6 percent each year, and except for 2019, when the agency missed the goal by 3 percent, the agency has exceeded its goals.

When the goal was developed in FFY2019, GoTriangle had few projects that had opportunities for DBE participation, Goodwin says, but for fiscal years 2022-2024, GoTriangle established new goals of 13.6 percent, which the agency exceeded in the federal fiscal year 2022. DBE goal achievements for FFY 2023-2024 will be reported per FTA guidelines.

Better DBE participation in GoTriangle’s new projects was one of his top priorities when Charles Lattuca became the agency’s CEO and president in 2020. Soon after stepping on board, he recognized that the agency had to recruit more companies to become DBE certified if it were to reach its goals. Recruiting companies has helped GoTriangle exceed those goals, and that effort continues, Lattuca says.

“Expanding the pool of DBEs is going to make GoTriangle more successful in our projects for the future,” he says.

Register now for our in-person event, “Strategies for Growing Your DBE Certified Business,” 10 a.m. to noon, Wednesday, June 14, at GoTriangle Offices, 4600 Emperor Blvd in Durham.