8:30-10:30 a.m. Successful DBE Programs: The CEO s Role

Transcription

1 Phil Washington Remarks Presiding Officer of the Day APTA Transit CEOs Seminar Monday, February 10, 2014 The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans, Salons 2 & 3 1 Draft February 4, :30-10:30 a.m. Successful DBE Programs: The CEO s Role At 8:15, invite Jeanne, Eve, and Greg to be seated on stage. They need to be mic d with lav mics Jim LaRusch will do. Open the session at 8:30 a.m. Good morning! I am Phil Washington, presiding officer for today. I m general manager of Denver Regional Transportation District and I serve on APTA s Executive Committee as vice chair. This morning, a separate track of study on leadership development for deputy CEOs is going on, and we are interested in the feedback you and they can offer APTA on this feature of the seminar.

2 Our first session this morning is one like you ve never seen on DBE disadvantaged business enterprise programs. At the Annual Meeting in Chicago, APTA and COMTO Conference of Minority Transportation Officials offered a session on the role of transit board members in developing effective DBE programs at their agency. We ran out of time because there was so much audience interest and all the great comments and observations During that session it occurred to me that we need to do a similar session at the CEOs seminar to talk about the role that we have in ensuring that our agencies have effective DBE programs. APTA staff thought that we needed a bit of drama to help get us focused. So we re starting with a hypothetical scenario of a conversation between two industry DBEs and a transit CEO. Our actors in this scenario insisted that we have a disclaimer. 2

3 The things they say during this session do not necessarily represent their personal opinions or ways of doing business, but are said only to get us to get stirred up and talking about the issues. So to start the scenario, we re going to listen-in on a conversation between the CEO of Growing-City Transit Agency (GCTA) and two DBE contractors. You also know them as: Jeanne Kreig, CEO of Tri Delta Transit in California Eve Williams, president and CEO of Dikita Engineering in Texas and Gregory Jenifer who is President and CEO Armand Resource Group in New Jersey. Jeanne has been CEO for 13 years and is a member of the APTA Executive Committee where she had previously served as the Small Ops member. She co-chairs the Procurement Steering Committee and is immediate past chair of APTA s Small Operations Committee. 3

4 Eve heads a 34 year old engineering and planning consulting firm that is a joint venture partner on the last section of the DART rail system. She is a member of APTA s Business Member Board of Governors and has served on the APTA Board of Directors. Greg s growing company specializes in the design, implementation, and management of industry civil rights programs in locations all over the country, including Denver. So let s get this session going. 4 Leave the stage, take your seat in the audience, in front. When the scenario is over, go back on stage. Invite the other panel members CEOs to join you Curtis Stitt, Paul Ballard, and Michael Ford. When you get back on stage, make some comment about the actors in the scenario Academy Award winning performances or the Almost Ready for Prime Time Players, or that it sounded like real life to you something light. Now we want to talk about the issues we were raised during the scenario. Regarding DBE programs would we do and say things differently than what Jeanne said? What are we doing at our own agencies that gets to the issues we heard about?

5 5 Joining me in this discussion are Curtis Stitt, Paul Ballard, and Michael Ford, and we ll get to comments from the audience soon. Curtis has been President and CEO at COTA in Columbus, Ohio for two years and had for 12 years served as COTA s legal counsel. For six of those years he was also V.P. of Government Affairs. Curtis is a lawyer and has worked in regulatory affairs for the banking industry and in the Ohio Secretary of State s office. Paul Ballard has been CEO of Nashville Metro Transit for over 12 years. A true veteran of our industry, he s been in transit more than 30 years. Michael Ford was appointed CEO of Ann Arbor Transportation Authority in He had been chief operating officer and AGM at San Joaquin Rapid Transit District, worked at Tri-Met in Portland, Oregon and Community Transit in Snohomish County, Washington.

6 First, to Curtis, Paul, and Michael what struck you about the dialogue that we ve just heard? Have you had conversations like that? How would you respond in a conversation like that? Let s take some of the issues we heard about one at a time and get your comments. Phil, involve the panel, the audience, or both your call. There are many more questions than you ll get to you ll not run out! We heard about prompt payment and good faith efforts. We ll start with prompt payment. 6 Prompt Payment: Prompt payment by transit agencies to their contractors. Is this something you-all have had problems with? What policy and tools do you have to check on how fast your agency pays its bills? What have you done about it? If there is an error in a complicated bill, do you pay a portion of the invoice? Do you tell prime contractors what documentation you expect with invoices?

7 Does your agency do anything that helps DBE s get paid on time by the primes they are working for? Do you have a transparent payment process, meaning, do the DBE s know when their primes are getting paid? Does your staff check to see when DBEs are getting paid? Does your agency set expectations on how long it should take for subcontractors to receive payment? Do you expect your primes to work with their subcontractors on how to prepare their invoices and to do it the way the agency expects to get them? How can DBEs build their capacity for having a good accounting system and the resources to train their employees? Does your agency play a role in that effort? 7

8 Good Faith Effort: Now we ll turn to the topic of Good Faith Effort. How good are your DBE goals are they realistic and reasonable? How often do you set DBE goals at your agency and how much work goes into that process? Is the community involved? The DBEs? How does your agency treat contactors that say they can t find any DBE firms? Do they help in the search? Do you do community outreach events to find DBEs? Have you waived good faith efforts? How important is it that your DBE contractors come from your local community? How can a DBE grow its company and make it sustainable if they can t get work outside of their home community? Has the issue of DBEs being hired from outside your community been an issue for you? 8

9 How do you handle transit board members who get involved with DBEs in getting work? in getting paid on time? How does your DBE program fit into discussions about funding for your agency, particularly regarding bond and tax referenda? 9 About 10:15, begin the wrap-up. Ask of the panel and audience: What is the transit CEO s role in making sure that the agency has a good, effective DBE program? Is this an issue of how strong the board feels about DBEs? Is this an issue of finding the right staff? Where does the DBE report in your organization and how important is it to you? Does it take the CEO s leadership and involvement to make it happen?

10 Close the session at 10: Thank YOU to our panel and everyone for your candid discussion and letting us know how you do things. APTA s Fran Hooper isn t here, but I m recognizing her for creating this session and getting us together. We ll take a 15-minute break and start again at 10:45 with a session that Joe Calabrese suggested and will moderate.

11 10:45 a.m.-12 p.m. Identifying and Preventing Attention-Related Errors and Accidents in Public Transit Operations 11 Joe Calabrese is moderator and can open the session. Let him know, please, that you will close the session just before noon. You close the session at 11:58 a.m. Thank the speakers & Joe. Then say Now we ll get our lunch outside of this room and the deputy CEOs will rejoin us. Take your lunch into one of three rooms to get involved in a discussion group. A PowerPoint slide shows the rooms for three different discussion groups. The three groups to choose from are: Cybersecurity in this room Mobility management on this level of the hotel in the Evangeline room, and Working with your board of directors. That is in the Broadmoor room, one level down. After lunch we ll be in this room at 2:00 for our labor relations session. At 2:00 bring the books you received from Tom Hock & Greg Dash. They will go over the labor data in detail.

12 2-3:30 p.m. Trends in Labor Relations 12 At 1:55, remind folks to bring their labor statistics books. Hold up the reports and say The reports from Tom Hock and Greg Dash were provided in the registration room. Everybody make sure you have your copies. Open the session at 2 p.m. (or shortly after, when registrants are settled in with their two books) I understand that for the past 25-plus years, our two speakers have gotten top ratings for their labor session and the information they compile for members who attend this Transit CEOs Seminar. The high ratings are well deserved. I am pleased to introduce Tom Hock, vice president, Labor Relations, at Veolia Transportation, and Greg Dash of John A. Dash & Associates, two highly respected individuals. Gentlemen, your work is much appreciated. Exit the stage.

13 13 Close the session at 3:30. Thank Tom Hock and Greg Dash. Then say We ll break for 15 minutes and re-group here for the CEOs exchange nine different topics chosen by the CEOs making presentations. See you at a quarter to four. 3:45-5:30 p.m. CEOs XChange Open the session at 3:45. This CEOs exchange session is anticipated because the speakers volunteered to contribute something new they ve tried or for which they have bragging rights. And we want to hear! Speakers will make their presentations in the order they appear in the program and field their own Q & A. First up is Value Capture with Joseph Black of the Lone Star Rail District. Exit stage. Sit in front.

14 Close the session at 5:30 p.m. Thank everyone for a good day. 14 We ve heard new ideas and ways of doing things. Tomorrow morning, we start at 8:30 in this room for a session on workforce development, which I know is top of mind for everyone here. Thanks to everyone who participated in the CEOs XChange and throughout the day. See you in the morning. # # #