BATON ROUGE, LA — March 19, 2018 — Mayor Sharon Weston Broome today announced the City of Baton Rouge, Parish of East Baton Rouge has released a request for proposals (RFP) to provide technical and administrative support for the development of a citywide disparity study aimed at expanding the pool of bidders on City-Parish contracts. In 2016, 27% of the bid requests on City-Parish work received zero or one bid. The RFP seeks to hire a consultant to design and conduct a study to identify potential firms to expand the pool of bidders and address impediments that prevent firms from engaging in the bidding process.

The consultant will design and conduct a study to identify qualified small businesses (SBE), minority businesses (MBE), women-owned businesses (WBE), and veteran-owned businesses (VOB) and determine if barriers exist to in City-Parish departmental procurement practices. Once complete, the study will give City leaders a more formal understanding of the marketplace of companies eligible to provide goods and services and who can contract with the City.

Sealed proposals will be received by the City of Baton Rouge, Parish of East Baton Rouge Purchasing Division until April 16, 2018 at 2:00 pm local time in Room 826, of City Hall, 222 Saint Louis Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70802 for the CITY OF BATON ROUGE, PARISH OF EAST BATON ROUGE DISPARITY STUDY. Contact the Purchasing Division at 225-389-3259, extension 0 or purchasinginfo@brla.gov.  Click here for a copy of the RFP.