King County Executive Dow Constantine joined Sound Transit, the City of Seattle and other regional transit leaders to sign the Equity in Infrastructure Pledge to improve contracting opportunities for Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs).
“King County is committed to advancing equity in contracting, and the Equity in Infrastructure Pledge aligns perfectly with our ongoing work to support minority and women-owned businesses,” said King County Executive Constantine. “By amplifying opportunities for historically underutilized businesses, we seek to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to participate in and contribute to our region’s prosperity. This pledge is another expression of King County’s daily commitment to becoming a welcoming community where every person can thrive.”
The mission of the Equity in Infrastructure Pledge is to build generational wealth and reduce the racial wealth gap by improving public infrastructure contracting practices to create more prime, joint venture and equity contracting opportunities for HUBs. Providing these opportunities also creates more competition, reducing costs to public agencies and allowing them to drive more value from their infrastructure dollars. Pledge signers are heads of transit authorities, airports, ports, water districts, and engineering, financial and construction firms from across the country – representing hundreds of billions of dollars of power to improve people’s lives. The White House has directly called on Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grantees to sign the Pledge. More details are on the EIP web page.
Pledge aligns with efforts in King County
The pledge’s focus on increasing contract awards to HUBs aligns closely with efforts that King County has already undertaken and will continue to expand. The county’s initial work began in 2003 with the launch of the Contracting Opportunities Program to support small contractors and suppliers by improving their access to King County contracts.
In 2021, Executive Constantine expanded this initiative by signing an Executive Order on Pro-Equity Contracting, ensuring that minority- and women-owned businesses are included in the program. These programs have sparked new ways to boost participation by minority and women-owned businesses (MWBE) in county contracts.
King County has made significant progress by:
- launching a Fast Track Certification program for minority and women-owned businesses that are already certified. As a result, these businesses are now 84 percent of our total number of more than 3,600 small contractor and supplier-certified firms. In 2023, $77 million in county contracts was awarded to these firms, with $35 million going to MWBE firms.
- requiring equity plans from prime contractors for county-funded projects,
- expediting payments through a Cash Flow Initiative, and
- partnering with organizations like Tabor 100 to support small businesses.
The Equity in Infrastructure Pledge also supports a nine-element action plan King County will implement over the next 12 months to help even more firms.
The action plan aims to reduce certification barriers, improve goals and metrics, and increase partnerships with other agencies to expand successful programs, such as a mentorship initiative for minority and women-owned businesses.
The pledge aligns with King County’s ongoing commitment to advancing equity in contracting by supporting small businesses that help our communities thrive.
At Metro, we especially emphasize our dual commitments to sustainability and equity. King County’s Strategic Climate Action Plan works toward an equitable future. Metro is making historic infrastructure investments in sustainability, including constructing two electric bus bases in Tukwila –estimated to cost more than $500 million for the two facilities. We also are installing batter-electric bus charging infrastructure on existing depots and continuing significant ongoing state-of-good repair projects to maintain our facilities.
As we do this important work, Metro is also taking extra steps to expand HUB opportunities by increasing outreach efforts and exploring ways to facilitate HUB participation in work that will utilize new technologies and sustainable practices.
(Aug. 29 Equity in Infrastructure news announcement)
6 NEW SIGNERS OF EQUITY IN INFRASTRUCTURE PLEDGE IN SEATTLE BRING COALITION TO 74
Ceremony Held Day Before Sound Transit’s Lynnwood Link Extension Opening; On Heels of 9 Signers in Chicago
On the eve of the grand opening of Sound Transit’s Lynnwood Link Extension light rail line, King County joined four other public agencies and a major construction management firm in signing the Equity In Infrastructure Pledge. These six signers bring EIPs Coalition of the Committed to 74 members.
Signing the Pledge during a ceremony at Seattle’s historic Union Station were King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, Sound Transit CEO Goran Sparrman, Port of Seattle Executive Director Steve Metruck, Community Transit CEO Ric Ilgenfritz, and Micheal Smith, Regional President of Americas, Hill International.
“King County is committed to advancing equity in contracting, and the Equity in Infrastructure Pledge aligns perfectly with our ongoing work to support minority and women-owned businesses,” said King County Executive Constantine. “By amplifying opportunities for historically underutilized businesses, we seek to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to participate in and contribute to our region’s prosperity. This pledge is another expression of King County’s daily commitment to becoming a welcoming community where every person can thrive.”
EIP’s mission is to build generational wealth and reduce the racial wealth gap by improving public infrastructure contracting practices to create more prime, joint venture and equity contracting opportunities for Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs). Providing these opportunities also creates more competition, reducing costs to public agencies and allowing them to drive more value from their infrastructure dollars. EIP Pledge signers are heads of transit authorities, airports, ports, water districts, and engineering, financial and construction firms from across the country – representing hundreds of billions of dollars of power to improve people’s lives. The White House has directly called upon Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grantees to sign the Pledge. See EquityInInfrastructure.org.
“We are advancing a national movement whose power can be measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Encouraging CEOs at both public and private entities to provide opportunities for historically underutilized businesses to operate as prime contractors will result in increasing generational wealth in underserved communities,” said EIP Co-Chair Phil Washington. “There is a value proposition to awarding more contracts to small and minority firms. EIP is not a social program – EIP is an economic development program. This is a program where we can squeeze more dollars out of infrastructure investments. That power is unlocked when CEOs take the EIP pledge, all voluntary, to create more opportunities for prime, joint venture, equity participation for historically underutilized businesses.”
“When we think about equity and infrastructure, for us at the Federal Transit Administration, we see them as intricately intertwined,” said FTA Administrator Veronica Vanterpool. “The pledge that is being signed today has an impact across the country. “The road to truly economic opportunities is long, but with the action of these signers here today, we’re on our way.”
“This work in equity, it is not a destination. It’s a journey that we are on together,” said Mayor Harrell. “The importance of this work cannot be stated loudly enough. … I want King County and Seattle, Washington to lead the way. … I am excited to sign this pledge.”
“I’m not signing the pledge today. Because I signed it 18 months ago,” Secretary Millar said. “What we have to do in Washington is make the investments we’re making with all of the communities that we serve, to the benefit of all of the communities that we serve. Providing opportunities to create generational wealth in all of the communities that we serve. So, EIP was just natural for us.”
“It’s a focus on how we can achieve the greatest possible, longest-lasting value by investing in airports, bridges, tunnels and utilities and getting a two-for from it. Not just building a bridge, but a bridge to the middle class,” said EIP Co-Chair John Porcari. “Our whole mission at EIP is about advancing ways to increase value to project owners, to communities and to taxpayers. If there are more companies who can compete as primes, joint venture partners, or equity partners, that means more competition. That means that those generational investments pay off in the long run. That lowers the cost to taxpayers and frees up dollars for more investments. That improves contractor performance at a very fundamental level and builds partnerships that didn’t exist before. So, we’re stretching our infrastructure dollars further. That’s what it’s all about”
“Sound Transit is committed to leveraging its nearly $100 billion capital program, the largest public works undertaking in the history of the state of Washington, to help build generational wealth by leveling the competitive marketplace for small, diverse businesses and creating quality career jobs for local residents” said Sound Transit’s Terri Mestas. “Sound Transit has a history of exceeding its disadvantaged business enterprise goals, but we are transforming our approach to project delivery and procurement, to create greater levels of participation by investing in continued capacity building to create more disadvantaged business and prime opportunities.”
“HNTB is honored to be the founding sponsor of the Equity and Infrastructure Project. We are committed to building strong, historically underutilized businesses because building those businesses is building strong communities. And when our communities are strong, we all benefit,” said EIP Advisory Council Chair Mendes. “We’re not just about the policy changes. We’re about making them a reality. Concrete, implementable actions that will make a difference to small businesses that serve our community every day.”
“The Port of Seattle is a proud signatory of the Equity in Infrastructure Project Pledge,” said Commissioner Hasegawa of the Port of Seattle Commission. “The principles involved in this voluntary effort firmly align with the Port’s own efforts around providing equitable opportunities to historically underrepresented contractors for public works projects throughout our region.”
“It is a huge honor for us to be here,” said Community Transit’s Ric Ilgenfritz. “Smaller agencies have different roles to play, but it’s no less important. As metro regions grow and as they thrive, people tend to find their way into the suburbs in search of affordability. We are on the cusp of a historic transition as an industry. We are investing modestly, but for us, on a huge scale, as we think about shifting our fleets from diesel to zero-emission. For Community Transit, we’ve committed to making that transition over the next 20 years. And the full value of that transition is expected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.4 billion.”
“We, at Hill International, are very excited to be part of the EIP initiative,” said Hill International’s Michael Smith. “We bring with us a track record of partnering with a variety of HUB firms because we believe these partnerships are key to helping grow our industry and enriching the lives of future generations. This is a win-win for everyone.”