Minority & Small Business Week
September 23. 2009
Page A9
Making Good on Minority Contracts
TriMet spreads work to the little guys
J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
by
TriMet General Manager
Fred H ansen rem em bers
when he first heard about the
“kaplunk” theory.
He was on the phone try­
ing to get James Posey, the
A frican A m erican ow ner
of Work Horse C onstruc­
tion, interested in the tran­
sit agency’s new program
g e a re d to w a rd s te e rin g
construction contracts for
b u ild in g th e I n te r s ta te
MAX Yellow Line to small
and m inority-owned busi­
nesses.
Posey remained dubious,
telling Hansen that until he
heard the dirt in the back of
one of his dump trucks go
“kaplunk,” he would be un­
certain about the program’s
benefits.
The next time Hansen took
a call from Posey, all he
heard w as one w ord:
David Makasini lays bricks along the new Max
Green Line in downtown Portland. He works for
Raimore Construction, a firm that was hired as
part o f TriMet’s commitment to promote small
and minority-owned businesses.
“kaplunk.”
F o r the last 11 y e a rs,
TriMet has sought to give
small and m inority-owned
businesses a leg up with its
D isad v an tag ed B usiness
Enterprise program, which
e n s u re s th at such b u s i­
nesses get a share of the
m ass transit agency’s lu­
crative contracts.
The program has provided
opportunities for small firms
that would have otherwise
been crowded out by their
larger and better-connected
counterparts.
TriMet paid over $62 mil­
lion on DBE contracts, about
16.5 percent of the work, on
the recen tly co m pleted
M AX G reen Line from
dow ntow n P o rtlan d to
Clackamas County.
Jean-Wildy Malary, a mi­
nority contractor and owner
of Affordable Electric, won
a $2.3 million contact to do
electric work on the Green
Line.
"It allows us to compete
and get work and build ca­
pacity," Malary said of the
contract.
He said the opportunity to
work on big public works
projects gives smaller firms
like his a chance to grow.
Before getting the contract,
M alary had tw o people
working for him, after get­
ting the contract he was up
to 16, and now has eight
people year round.
“It’s a big deal,” he added.
Posey said that the DBE
program helped him get out
of the “funk.”
The funk, said Posey, is the
state of constantly being on
Tonee Fisher, an employée o f A2 Fabrication, works on the 1-205 segment of
the new Max Green Line.
the defensive because, as a
minority contractor, he was
perceived as incompetent.
“They would squeeze us
out,” elaborated Posey, who
said that it’s hard for small
firm s to get certain con­
tracts.
He said that these prob­
lem s are absent w ith
TriMet's DBE program.
Posey's company also par­
ticipated in the Green Line
construction, which is the
third his company has com­
pleted. He says the work has
continued'y^ on page A t5
M inority E nterprise D evelopment
W eek C elebration
• T RAINING!
P eriod 1 - T opics : D iversity L eadership & S ales "C losing the D eal "
B reak : - R ecovery / S timulus U pdate and P rojects B riefing
P eriod 2 - T opics : S uccessfully F ulfilling M/W/ESB and DBE G oals
& P urchasing for C ontractors
Register on line $85
Indudes: Awards Luncheon,
• A wards L uncheon
Exhibits & Reverse Vendor
Networking
•R everse V endor N etworking • E xhibit F air
O regon C onvention C enter • 777 ne M artin L uther K ing , J r . B lvd ,
for info : A ngela . watkins @ oregonmetro . gov
503-797-1816
www.bdiweb.org
Event By the
BUSINESS
DIVERSITY
Business
Diversity
Institute