Colorado stimulus board boosts minority-outreach effort - St. Louis Business Journal:

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Maranda Pleau, the small business coordinatortfor Greeley-based general contractor , will join the Colorado Economic Recovery and Accountability Board June 29, chairman Don Elliman said durintg a board meeting Thursday. Her job is to ensurew minority businesses are aware of contracts related to thestimulux package, Elliman said. Officials with the Colorado Department of Transportation told the boarxd they will recommend the agency revieaw how it handles complaints about road and bridge contracts and the use oftheswe small, minority- and woman-owned businesses. CDOT'ss move came after Hamonn Contractors Inc.
in Denver raisedc concerns about a bridge repaird project paid for with money from the Americaj Recovery andReinvestment Act. Hamon lost a bid Aprilo 16 to rebuild two bridges over Interstate 76 inAdamsw County. The lowest bid for the contract camefrom Centennial-basedr , which bid $8 million for the nearly 15 percent under CDOT’sd estimate of $9.4 million. State contractzs are typically awarded to thelowest bidder.
But Hamon objected to CDOT awarding the project to sayingSema didn’t make a "good-faith effort" to hire enoughy minority subcontractors, according to a June 3 lettert from Mark Cavanaugh, director of the Governor’s Economifc Recovery Team, to the accountability board. CDOT reviewer the complaint, and Sema’z efforts to get minority businesses involvexd in thebridge contract. The review concluded Sema met the agency’es threshold for trying and CDOT formally awardee the project tothe company, CDOT executive directof Russ George said. But CDOT wantzs to review how it handles future complaintd about using disadvantaged businesses onstate contracts.
Celina Benavidez, directodr of administration for CDOT, told the accountability board she will recommencdthe agency’s commissioners form a reviews committee involving members of the agency, interestr groups, industry, the attorney general’s office, and federa l transportation officials. How to gathetr input from minority businesses about their experience with aprims contractor. At the Hamon attorney Seth Firmender thanked CDOT for beinvg willing to reviewthe process. Helga executive director of the Hispanic Contractor sof Colorado, also praised CDOT’s move, saying, "We believe we’ve been heard.
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