2025 Disparity Study
The City has contracted Denver-based BBC Research & Consulting, to analyze the City's contracting and procurement.
The 2025 Disparity Study is designed to provide a benchmark point that will score the City on its efforts to encourage underrepresented business owners to bid on City contracts and help determine what, if any, improvements are needed to optimize the process.
The City has contracted Denver-based BBC Research & Consulting, a firm specializing in conducting disparity studies, to analyze the City's contracting and procurement and to assess how small businesses, as well as person of color (POC)-, women- and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, are faring in the local marketplace.
As a part of the first step in the research, business owners, trade association representatives and other interested parties are invited to attend one of three upcoming public meetings where BBC consultants will share information about the study and collect feedback from stakeholders about:
- Current market conditions.
- Their experiences doing business in the region and working with the City.
- Any barriers or difficulties they've experienced when bidding on City contracts.
- Any race- or gender-based discrimination they may have encountered in doing business locally.
Study Activities
Public Hearings
The BBC study team conducted three public hearings on Oct. 7, Oct. 8 and Oct. 16 as part of the disparity study. During the public hearings, BBC presented information about the disparity study, answered questions, and solicited participants for verbal or written testimony that they would like to share regarding their experiences working in the local marketplace.
Availability Telephone Surveys
The study team will conduct availability telephone surveys with businesses in the relevant geographic market area that perform work that is relevant to City contracting. The study team will begin those availability surveys in the fall of 2024 and will continue to contact businesses through the winter of 2025.
Utilization Telephone Surveys
The study team will begin conducting utilization telephone surveys with businesses that performed on a relevant City contract. The utilization telephone surveys will begin in the winter of 2025. If we contact your business, please participate in the survey process to help ensure an accurate and comprehensive utilization analysis!
In-depth Interviews
The study team will begin conducting in-depth interviews in fall 2024. Interviews will be conducted with local business owners to collect insights related to experiences working in the local marketplace; starting or expanding a business; working with the City; and various other topics. Insights from the interviews are invaluable to helping the study team better understand local market conditions and to identify potential barriers that firms face when trying to establish or grow their businesses.
Public Testimony
The study team will collect written testimony from local business owners and stakeholders related to experiences working in the local marketplace. If you would like to share your insights, please email the study team directly at VBdisparitystudy@BBCresearch.com.
Project Timeline
- July 2024
- Project initiation
- Data assessment
- August 2024-June 2025
- Data analysis
- August 2024-August 2025
- Community Engagement
- May 2025
- Data review
- July 2025
- Draft report
- September 2025
- Final report
From the 2018 Study:
- Disparity Study Recommendations Update as of 06.30.2021
- January 10 2018 Presentation to City Council
- Disparity Study Written Testimony Form
- Disparity Study Draft Results Presentation
- CM Letter Disparity Study Briefing
- 2018 Virginia Beach Disparity Study Final Report
- Amended Resolution Aspirational Goal Minority Owned Business Participation
- Resolution to Implement Disparity Study Recommendations
The crux of the disparity study will be to examine whether there are any disparities among:
- The percentage of contract dollars that the City spent with POC-, woman-, and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses during the study period (utilization); and
- The percentage of contract dollars that POC-, woman-, and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses might be expected to receive based on their availability to perform specific types and sizes of City contracts (availability).
The disparity study will review contracts and procurements that the City awarded during the past five years. The study will also examine other qualitative and quantitative information related to:
- Legal considerations surrounding the City’s implementation of the SWaM Program;
- Marketplace conditions for POC-, woman-, and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses;
- Contracting practices and assistance programs that the City currently has in place; and
- Potential program measures for the City to consider implementing to further encourage small business and POC-, woman-, and service-disabled veteran-owned business participation.
The City and BBC will officially initiate the 2025 City of Virginia Beach Disparity Study in September 2024 with a series of meetings with various City departments and representatives. BBC will meet with the City to introduce the study, answer questions, and begin the process of understanding contracting and vendor data that the City maintains.
BBC will engage in the following disparity study tasks in the coming months:
Data Collection and Analysis
BBC will begin working with the City in September 2024 to collect data on contracts that the City awarded during the study period as well as information about the vendors that participated in those contracts. The study team began analyzing data that it collected from the City to assess the subindustries that account for the majority of City contracting and the geographical area that is most relevant to City contracting.