State Agency Recognition Awards (SARA) 2010

Michael Gonzalez & Marty Keller 

In May of 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Marty Keller as the Director of the Office of Small Business Advocate. Michael Gonzalez joined as Deputy Director a short time later. During the next three years, this dynamic duo took what had been a quiet protocol office and turned it into a “force to be reckoned with” in championing the cause of SBs and DVBEs seeking to do business in and with the State of California.

Listing all their accomplishments is time-consuming. But a small sampling of their achievements includes: serving with distinction as the voice of the state’s SBs and DVBE firms and the groups that represent them within the Governors Office; initiating two Governor’s Small Business Conferences which drew over 1,300 attendees as well as multiple smaller regional “Governor’s Small Business Conference Comes to You” events throughout California; formatting Strategic Working Partnerships; coordinating efforts with DGS, the California Department of Veterans Affairs, the Small Business Development Centers and others; working with DGS, the Alliance and others to spearhead the passage of AB 31 which increased the SB/DVBE Option to $250,000; providing a strong voice for and leading mentorship efforts of the state’s 200 departmental SB/DVBE advocates.
 

The two of them have produced results. During their tenure, California exceeded its SB contracting participation two out of three years and attained its best-ever DVBE participation results. Furthermore, they have become friends and colleagues to the state’s SB/DVBE community and inspired everyone with their passion for the cause.

State Agency Recognition Award 2010 Nominees

• California Arts Council
• California Department of Aging
• California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Avenal State Prison
• California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, California Men's Colony
• California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, California State Prison, Corcoran
• California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, California Substance Abuse Treatment
• California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Headquarters
• California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Ironwood State Prison
• California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Kern Valley State Prison
• California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, OBS Procurement
• California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Salinas Valley State Prison
• California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Wasco State Prison
• California Emergency Management Agency
• Caltrans, District 9
• Caltrans, District 11
• Caltrans, Headquarters
• Department of California Highway Patrol
• Department of Consumer Affairs
• Department of Corporations
• Department of Fair Employment & Housing
• Department of Fish and Game
• Department of General Services, Office of State Publishing - Procurement Team
• Department of General Services, Real Estate Services Division
• Department of General Services, Real Estate Services Division - Veteran's Home Projects
• Department of Industrial Relations
• Department of Motor Vehicles
• Department of Parks and Recreation
• Department of Real Estate
• Developmental Services
• Emergency Medical Services Authority
• Employment Development Department
• First 5 California
• Military Department
• Pleasant Valley State Prison
• State Lands Commission
• State Personnel Board
• Supplier Diversity, University of California, Berkeley

Advocate of the Year 2010 Nominees

Acquisitions Branch
Board of Equalization

Ann Blazina
Caltrans

Kevin Childers
Department of Motor Vehicles

Ann Danko
Caltrans

Sherry Felder
Department of General Services

Lori Hall
Department of Water Resources

Linda L. Langley
California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation

Lucy Gonzalez-Mochizuki
California Arts Council

Tanya Marcellana
Department of Aging

Sean O'Neal
Department of Real Estate

Lillian Rasmussen
California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation

Liz Santucci
Caltrans

Alicia Sequeira
Caltrans

Susan Sudmann
Department of Parks and Recreation

Tracie Wagner
Franchise Tax Board

While operating in a large-scale production environment with very tight timelines, OSP’s Procurement Team has worked diligently to build working relationships with SB and DVBE firms which provide the diverse services and products they need. The results were impressive. Over the last three years, our Silver Award winner has always achieved above 57% SB participation and above 7% DVBE participation. Their most recent numbers show 74% SB and 37% DVBE participation. Ninety-one percent (91%) of all contracts OSP executed in 2010 went to a SB or a DVBE firm. 

The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Corcoran set a personal record for DVBE participation this year. They required that all bid proposals target the SB and DVBE communities. Every quarter, their Procurement staff train institution personnel on the importance of contracting with SB and DVBE firms. Executive staff gave their full support to these efforts with proven results. Four years ago their DVBE participation was 1.74%; now it is 10.96% and SB participation is now over 40%. 

Bronze 

California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Kern Valley State Prison staff awarded 375 contracts using the SB/DVBE option this year, over 100 more than they did the year before. This remote, Central Valley operation focused on growing their local economy by reaching, certifying and buying from local businesses. Spearheaded by their advocate, Lisa Reinsch, and what is known as “Team Procurement,” achieved 45.55% SB and 8.88% DVBE participation. A key element of their success was a requirement that each procurement had to include at least one SB and one DVBE bid. 

Honorable Mention 

UC Berkeley, Supplier Diversity was a first time SARA nominee and, more importantly, a non-traditional nominee as UCs are not mandated to report their SB or DVBE numbers to the DGS. Nonetheless, they take their mission to provide “operational excellence” to include ensuring that our State’s SB and DVBE firms have equal representation on their multi-million dollar state-funded contracts. They expanded the traditional concept of “supplier diversity” to include State certified SBs and DVBEs. During very difficult budget circumstances, UC Berkeley promoted aggressive outreach efforts SBs and DVBEs and worked with the DGS to get businesses certified.

Gold Award 

Tracie has been the Franchise Tax Board’s SB and DVBE Advocate for the past seven years, becoming one of our “go to” advocates, mentoring others, keeping everyone positive and serving as a “point of light” in her very large agency. She was instrumental in changing the mindset of program managers and her department exceeded their goals every year because of Tracie’s education and outreach efforts. The change became evident when program managers who once asked, “How much did it cost” now ask, “Were we able to award the contract to a SB?” Tracie led the implementation of some innovative techniques, such as: requiring all purchases under $100,000 to be awarded to a SB/DVBE unless exempted by the Advocate; working with SB/DVBEs to get certified; coordinating with manufacturers to have SB/DVBE resellers; and finally working with large consulting firms to partner with SB/DVBE consulting firms. These actions allowed the Franchise Tax Board to exceed the State’s SB/DVBE goals, resulting in practices being adopted by other agencies.

A first time SARA winner, our Silver Awardee works far from Sacramento in a small regional facility.  She was proactive in all phases of her job, whether she was building management support for SB and DVBE outreach and procurement efforts, training buyers on how to use the expanded SB/DVBE option, working to get local firms state certified or developing new policies that increase participation.  She has pioneered a best practice that requires that ALL orders at her department must include at least one SB and one DVBE bid.  This practice has paid off.  Since 2006, her department’s DVBE numbers have grown from 1.74% to 11.13%.  Their SB participation, while always stellar, is now nearing 50%. 

A multiple SARA winner, Kevin and his department were honored by the California Black Chamber of Commerce in August 2010, for excellence in SB contracting. This year, Kevin became the first department Advocate using the full functionality of the eProcurement system to better link SBs and DVBEs with his department’s contracting opportunities. He met regularly with his top management and purchasing officials to monitor their progress on meeting SB and DVBE goals. His agency has exceeded its goals year after year. This year SB spending increased over $11 million from the previous year while DVBE spending more than doubled. 

Susan used her training background to educate her department’s new buyers on best practices in using SBs and DVBEs in contracts. She developed an Excel worksheet that calculated the SB and DVBE incentives, created newsletters, and taught her agency’s staff how to navigate the eProcurement system. Thanks to Susan, the use of the SB/DVBE option in her department has doubled. 

Ann is a consummate “team player” and driving force behind numerous large scale procurement events. She is known throughout the state for her drive and passion. During her four years as the SB Liaison, she has pioneered Business Exchanges, On-the-Spot purchasing, online bidding, a new website and many more tools to help SBs and DVBEs become certified and do business with the state. Truly, she has been instrumental in taking many firms from becoming certified to actually getting state contracts.

Presented for only the second time, this award recognizes innovative efforts contributing to the state’s commitment in successfully providing quality service to our SB/DVBE community.

Lorie is a leader in the Advocate Community and mentor to all. She previously received an Advocate of the Year award, based on the accumulated accomplishments in her Department’s SB/DVBE Program over the last nine years. She created the program from inception, taking a very limited effort to a multi-faceted, customer service-based program serving the entire department, the bidding public, SB and DVBE firms and her counterparts in other agencies.

She is single-minded in her focus on customer service, providing outstanding assistance throughout the Department, interacting with all staff from line through mid/executive management staff. She guides SB and DVBE businesses through the bid process, assists with certification and reaches out to non-SB/DVBE firms encouraging certification. She alone created a fully-functioning SB/DVBE program including: website development; policy development; workshops/training classes and materials; program brochures, newsletters, and flyers.

Lorie represents her department at bid conferences, and state and metropolitan program events. Partnering with DGS, she chairs the recently formed Advocate Steering Committee. Through her dedicated efforts, her department’s SB/DVBE performance steadily improved and is experiencing a three-year upward trend in both SB and DVBE participation.  

This year’s winner overcame past challenges in both SB and DVBE contracting arenas by instituting some key best practices that have yielded dramatic results on a large scale. Their commitment to exceed the Governor’s mandated goals flow from the top of the organization down.

Their best practices included:  formation of an organization-wide SB/DVBE outreach team resulting in a total of $75 million going to SB and DVBE firms in the past year; the rallying of the team behind two landmark and nationally prominent design-build Veterans’ Homes projects in Redding and Fresno being built in partnership with the California Department of Veterans Affairs; setting of ambitious goals for both projects, averaging 10% for DVBE and over 27% for SB; and then, surpassing those aggressive goals. Through determined teamwork, focus, and dedication to these projects DGS, RESD actually generated 55% SB participation and an incredible 20% DVBE participation.

This prestigious award is presented to the department or agency that epitomizes a superior standard for all state departments to model. The 2010 award winner has been a standard bearer for many years.

The Military Department, which has many large scale public works projects, uses the state’s SB and DVBE programs as their primary procurement methods. It includes heavy emphasis on the recently expanded SB/DVBE option. In 2010, this executive-supported approach increased the Military Department’s SB and DVBE spend by over $7 million translating to over 51% of the department’s total operating expense budget. The Military Department places a mandatory 10% DVBE participation goal on all publicly-bid projects. These best practices, along with an active presence at each DGS and Governor’s Office sponsored outreach event, have generated a ready supply of SB and DVBE firms prepared to respond to their bids. 

Acknowledgement of Judges - (Windows Media Player)
Eric Mandell and Marty Keller

• John Arena
• James Brady
• Marty Keller
• Rich Dryden