HB1454eng 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB1454 Engrossed LRB096 05039 RCE 15105 b

AN ACT concerning State government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Department of Transportation Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois is amended by changing Section 2705-600 as follows:

(20 ILCS 2705/2705-600)

Sec. 2705-600. Target market program. The Department of Transportation shall regularly review any and all evidence of discrimination including but not limited to evidence used for purposes of establishing disadvantaged business enterprise goals applicable to minority-owned businesses and female-owned businesses pursuant to subsection (d) of Section 6 of the Business Enterprise for Minorities, Females, and Persons with Disabilities Act. If, after reviewing such evidence, the Department finds and the chief procurement officer concurs in the findings that discrimination exists against a specific group, race, or gender, the chief procurement officer has the power to establish and implement a target market program tailored to address the specific findings made by the Department after a public hearing at which minority, women's, and general contractor groups, community organizations, and other interested parties shall have the opportunity to provide comments. As used in this Section, "target market program" means a procurement process whereby construction contracts selected by the chief procurement officer are let utilizing procedures designed to encourage and facilitate bidding by minority-owned businesses, female-owned businesses, and disadvantaged businesses as defined in the Business Enterprise for Minorities, Females, and Persons with Disabilities Act. A target market program shall incorporate In order to achieve all diversity goals, the Department's chief procurement officer shall develop and coordinate a target market program including the following elements:

(1) In January of each year, the Department and the chief procurement officer shall report jointly to the General Assembly the results of hearings held pursuant to this Section, and shall report the actions to be taken to address the findings including the establishment and implementation of target market initiatives. The dollar value of all contracts bid under the target market program shall count towards the achievement of the goals for utilization of minority-owned businesses, female-owned businesses, and disadvantaged businesses established for the State-funded construction program pursuant to subsection (d) of Section 6 of the Business Enterprise for Minorities, Females, and Persons with Disabilities Act. estimate the dollar value of all contracts to be awarded by the Department during that year and shall multiply that total by the minority-owned business target market percentage and the women-owned business target market percentage for that year. Contracts with an estimated dollar value equal to those products shall be set aside (prior to advertisement in the case of contracts to be awarded by bid) to be let only to qualified minority-owned businesses and qualified women-owned businesses, respectively.

(2) The chief procurement officer shall work with the officers and divisions of the Department to determine the appropriate designation of contracts as target market contracts. The chief procurement officer working with the Department shall determine appropriate contract formation and bidding procedures for target market contracts including but not limited to: division of procurements so designated into contract award units to facilitate offers or bids from minority-owned businesses and female-owned businesses; direct solicitation of bids or offers from minority-owned businesses and female-owned businesses; providing various contracting opportunities to encourage maximum involvement of minority-owned businesses and female-owned businesses; removal of bid bond requirements for minority-owned businesses and female-owned businesses; and identification of sheltered market contracts as defined in subsection (d) of Section 6 of the Business Enterprise for Minorities, Females, and Persons with Disabilities Act. To the extent practical, the chief procurement officer shall divide the procurements so designated into contract award units of economically feasible production runs in order to facilitate offers or bids from minority-owned businesses and women-owned businesses. In making the annual designation of target market contracts, the chief procurement officer shall attempt to vary the included procurements so that a variety of goods and services produced by different minority-owned businesses and women-owned businesses shall be set aside each year. Minority-owned businesses and female-owned women-owned businesses shall remain eligible to seek the procurement award of contracts that have not been designated as target market contracts.

(3) The chief procurement officer Department shall develop a list of minority-owned businesses and women-owned businesses that are interested in participating in the target market program, including the type of contract in which each minority-owned businesses and women-owned businesses is interested in participating. The Department may make participation in the target market program dependent upon submission to stricter compliance audits than are generally applicable. No contract shall be eligible for inclusion in the target market program unless the list developed by the Department determines indicates that there are at least 3 qualified minority-owned businesses or female-owned women-owned businesses interested in participating in that type of contract. The Department with concurrence by the chief procurement officer may waive this requirement for a particular contract if the particular contract would have a significant impact on participating businesses. The Department with concurrence by the chief procurement officer may develop guidelines to regulate the level of participation of individual minority-owned businesses and female-owned women-owned businesses in the target market program in order to prevent the domination of the target market program by a small number of those entities. The If necessary or useful, the Department may require minority-owned businesses and female-owned women-owned businesses to participate in training programs offered by the Department or other State agencies as a condition precedent to participation in the target market program.

(4) Participation in the target market program shall be limited to prequalified minority-owned businesses and female-owned women-owned businesses and joint ventures consisting exclusively of minority-owned businesses, female-owned women-owned businesses, or both, that are certified as disadvantaged businesses pursuant to the provisions of subsection (d) of Section 6 of the Business Enterprise for Minorities, Females, and Persons with Disabilities Act. The Department may include previously certified but graduated firms that meet the definition of "business concern or business" under the Business Enterprise for Minorities, Females, and Persons with Disabilities Act. A The prime contractor on a target market contract may subcontract up to 50% of the dollar value of the target market contract to subcontractors who are not minority-owned businesses or female-owned women-owned businesses.

(5) The Department in conjunction with the chief procurement officer may include in the target market program contracts that are funded by the federal government to the extent allowed by federal law and may vary the standards of eligibility of the target market program (for example, by allowing the participation of businesses owned by a person with a disability) to the extent necessary to comply with the federal funding requirements.

(6) If no satisfactory bid or response is received with respect to a contract that has been designated as part of the target market program, the chief procurement officer Department may delete that contract from the target market program. In addition, the chief procurement officer shall thereupon designate and set aside for the target market program additional contracts corresponding in approximate value to the contract that was deleted from the target market program, to the extent feasible.

(7) In order to facilitate the performance of target market contracts by minority-owned businesses and female-owned women-owned businesses, the Department chief procurement officer may expedite payments under target market contracts, may reduce retainages under target market contracts when appropriate, and may pay the contractor a portion of the value of a target market contract at the time of award as an advance to cover start-up and mobilization costs.

(Source: P.A. 96-795, eff. 7-1-10 (see Section 5 of P.A. 96-793 for the effective date of P.A. 96-795).)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.