Review of Equity in Contracting at COO
September 2021 – February 2022
A gap that continues to exist, according to interview participants, is offering more education to partners upfront and throughout the life of the contract about the expectations related to reporting. This includes quarterly financial reporting, evaluation reporting, and program and finance site visits (which have created a lot of consternation for many partners). “Thinking about how to work with communities in between award and contracting to make sure that they fully understand what it means to contract with the county because it is different than contacting with a private foundation or private money.” ―King County staff “One of the agreements when you sign a contract is that you have to go through a fiscal audit. We did not know that. We got the grant, then we signed the contract and we saw that. We hired someone to do the fiscal audit and it cost I think $12,000. We didn't have that money so our program manager said we could take out of the grant contract. So that was a huge deficit for us to take $12,000. We did not know that was the consequence of being with COO. It was also very time consuming.” ―Community-based organization staff More education for staff is also needed. This concern aligns with the finding of the 2021 King County Audit which identified that King County has not provided training to contracting staff on unconscious bias in contracting (King County Auditor’s Office, 2021). “I feel like I personally have not really been trained on ways to specifically identify the unequitable issues. In the world of procurement, we have focused just naturally on maximizing competition and not artificially reducing that. But I think that there are probably concrete steps that we could take to ensure that we don't bundle scopes of work together and then don't allow for those to be split out amongst multiple companies. I think those are some strategies right off the bat that we can employ. ―King County staff There is also much to be shifted within King County processes to remove the structural barriers and strengthen the relationships with small and nascent groups and collectives, especially those without 501(c)3 status, and those that are volunteer-run, those where English is not the primary language spoken. “One of the things about the funding world is how you have to have connections to be able to get in, to have credit to say you are a legit organization, and to apply for the funding. That's a continuous barrier for small organizations that may not have those relationships or may not have the backing from other organizations. I always wonder how do we make it equitable for small or start up organizations who don't have the capacity to continue to keep going out and looking for fundings and don't have those relationships.” ―Community-based organization leader
Contracts Interview participants agree that, in general, the steps related to setting up a contract with COO go smoothly. Procurement staff recognize that there has been an intentional effort from COO staff to try to find solutions together to make contracting as easy as possible for partners, while still following the guidelines and rules that the county has in place. While they recognize that it sometimes takes more time to understand what COO and the community partners are trying to accomplish, they consider that they have forged a path of working together with CPRES, where communication and the entire process have significantly improved.
Contacto Consulting for King County Communities of Opportunity
22
