ST. LOUIS — The city’s economic development arm began accepting applications for minority- and women-owned business certification Tuesday, ending a two-month pause on the certifications while it took over a function long performed by St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
The St. Louis Development Corporation for years had outsourced the job of certifying businesses as minority- or women-owned to Lambert’s Business Diversity Development Office. But in June, it abruptly announced that it would take the job back inhouse, and its board used emergency procurement procedures to buy the software Lambert used for the task.
For two months, SLDC stopped accepting new applications as the work was transferred from Lambert to its staff. Businesses from throughout the region relied on the airport office for minority certification.
Many governments have goals and requirements for the percentage of minority- and women-owned firms that get work through subcontracts on major projects. Some private companies and institutions have similar goals, and non-minority contractors often need minority-owned subcontractors to work with them if they hope to win bids.
On Tuesday, SLDC and St. Louis County development officials announced that the new office, CertifySTL, was open and would be housed at the Northside Economic Empowerment Center on Sumner High School’s Campus. About 20 or 30 people, many of them business owners, gathered for the announcement.
St. Louis County, which also works with Lambert’s minority certification office, is also looking at “how we can make the process more efficient.”
Latonda Moody, who was there to see about getting certified, said her experiences with Lambert’s minority certification office were unpleasant. She was told at one point that her paperwork was incorrect and she would have to start the process over to get her construction company certified.
“I was through,” she said.
There was a backlog of 60 or so businesses at Lambert’s minority certification office, and the airport will continue to help process them to help the city catch up. St. Louis County’s economic development arm, the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, will help split the roughly $300,000 cost of moving the certification functions to SLDC, said Rodney Crim, who was at Tuesday’s announcement.
Crim and SLDC Executive Director Neal Richardson also said some private companies and institutions have expressed interest in helping to fund the certification office.
Jared Boyd, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ chief of staff, said housing the center at the Sumner campus will help turn what had been thought of as a bureaucratic hurdle into a way to offer services to businesses on an ongoing basis.
“Now this process will not only be streamlined, but it will be the beginning of a relationship that many of these businesses will have, not just with the city of St. Louis, but with St. Louis County,” Boyd said Tuesday.
View life in St. Louis through the Post-Dispatch photographers’ lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.
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