TRB Meeting Minutes
January 15, 2008
Page 1
TRB Meeting Minutes
January 15, 2008
Page 1
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD MEETING MINUTES
JANUARY 15, 2008
WASHINGTON, DC.
I. WELCOME (Eugene Johnson, Chair of the DBE subcommittee)
2007 was certainly a very busy year for us. I do hope that in 2008, we will all have more time to work on TRB related material. I would like to take a moment to thank you all, including our returning members, for your participation in the TRB conference and meeting. The key thing to remember about the DBE subcommittee is that we are a member of the National academy of science. Keep in mind that there is a lot of rigor associated with the research done by the academy.
The Disadvantaged Business Bureau (DBE) may not be viewed as rocket science because we are required to be quite practical. Most of us are practitioners and it would be nice if we could get the research done ourselves. However, in the absence of that, we must count on universities to do a lot of the research for us. We appreciate the involvement of the scientist as well as the practitioners in all of our proceedings and we acknowledge that in order to sustain the program we DO need research.
II. INTRODUCTIONS OF ATTENDEES
Eugene Johnson, chair of committee and director of BEES
Michele Carter, WisDOT, DBE program manager, friend of the committee
Elleanor Mason-Ramsey, guest and invited speaker
Richard Rolland, Director of the Northwest tribal technical association business program at EasterWashingtonUniversity- member of the committee
Carlton Brooks-Director with Pennsylvania’s DBE support services Center and a friend of the committee
Mike Baney- Director of the Institute for state regional affairs at Penn-State, friend of the committee and maintains the website for the committee
Frank Petraskevitch-Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation, DBE program Administrator-member of the committee
Michael Shurmer-DBE program manager at the Delaware River and Bay authority, committee member
Albert Davenport- Davenport communications, subcontractor on the DBE goals for Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation
Shyan Lubart-Chief council’s office at Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation
Sherry More-President of Quality Engineering Solutions, DBE program in Pennsylvania
Shay Hope-Assistant Division Administrator of External Programs at Virginia Dept. of Transportation
Reggie Mosley- DBE compliance Coordinator
Brad Anderson- Global risk manager
Carolyn Jordan, Gary, Indiana
Sherry Zimmerman, University of Pennsylvania
Earl Williams, DBE senior fellowship student
Jerry Lewis,DBE fellowship student
Courtney Gregg, DBE fellowship student
Marvin Nissan, Maryland Transportation Authority
Ginger Bricker, University of Pennsylvania
Charles Wright, Florida A & M
Andrea Brenan
Dr. Ramsey
Sheryl Portee
Fred Heil
Steve Dewitt
III. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF 2007 TRB MEETING MINUTES (Eugene Johnson)
- Change to the 2007 TRB meeting minutes (Carlton Brooks)
Page three of four of the 2007 TRB meeting minutes, under section 8 of presenters and topics, Burts should be replaced with Carlton Brooks.
- Move to approve minutes as amended by Richard Roland
- Seconded by Michael Cooper
- Minutes were approved with the amendment and accepted into the records
IV. COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP (Eugene Johnson)
A.It is agreed that members who are not aware of this committee do not conduct a lot of outreach for their organization. We should try contacting industry associations to pass on information to their membership. (Andrea Brenan)
B.Contact Bill Kerr of Washington who represents AMAC (Minority Contractors Association), they are in the process of submitting changes to regulations
C. Comparable assessments of the needs of DBE communities and sample of utilized and not utilized. What is the correspondence between deliverers (states) and users (DBE’s) of services? The real challenge is to get the audience to think broadly. (Eleanor Mason)
D.There are 6 areas, in which we need to balance our committee,
- 1. Disciplines should have representation from affiliations or place of employment both private and public sector
- 2. Balances of modes of transportation
- 3. Geographic diversity
- 4. Balance in relevant biases
- 5. Representation of women and minorities
- 6. Representation from individuals between 25 and 30 years of age. Some individuals were already asked but their agencies will not fund them
V. TRB STAFF COMMENTS/PROBLEM STATEMENTS (Fred Heil and Steve Dewitt)
A.Remember TRB is a research organization. We need to begin submitting research problem statements
B.Some committees hold a mid year conference to discover research topics and the web conference model to solicit research.
C.Potential major issues: Transportation financing, mega projects, $500 million toll roads in Indiana and how DBEs stand to benefit, effects of moving away from gas tax, Public/private partnerships are on the way presenting different challenges for DBEs.
D.NCHRP research projects develop a program to help with issues.
Accessing resources is accomplished by submitting research problem statements
E.Note that NCHRP does not have a direct relationship to TRB, however, State transportation agencies like DOT do.
F. In most cases find a state DOT or FHWA to sponsor or push forward.
G. Topics (Research Problem Statements) must be relevant and timely to get state DOTs support for funding
VI. WEB PAGE (Mike Baney)
- We have instituted a committee webpage to help facilitate the communication and exchange of ideas for the committee
- Eugene suggested that other presenters who had handouts should have those handouts posted to the website as well (Eugene Johnson)
- Illinois court case appeals should be added to the web page (Eugene Johnson)
- Is it possible to post presentations form last year as well? This way we can give history to show that we didn’t just start today, but we have been trying to improve consistently. (Charles Wright)
VII. PRESENTATIONS FEEDBACK/ RESEARCH (Eugene Johnson)
A.It was a great idea to have sessions before the committee meeting. When the meetings were being held before the sessions, we spent the entire meeting talking about what was going to happen that year rather than planning for the next year (Sheryl More)
B.Attendance was better this year than previous years
C.Maintain the currency of the topics so people can remain interested
D.Focus of the committee seems to be centered on several agencies and when you look at the membership of the committee it appears to be self-serving. I recommend we engage education in a proactive way because government is not the only aspect of transportation. (Carolyn Jordan)
E.All members of the committee could go out and solicit membership and friends of the committee to different organizations, as many of us are members of outside organizations. (Dr. Wright)
F.In the whole culture of promoting equity, you need solid science. We need data driven models and strategies. We have to figure out what things to invest in? What strategies can we invest in that have been proven successful? We do need that marriage of data driven approaches to program design. (Eugene Johnson)
G.We can do a web survey at least once a year with every DOT and quantify what the current issues are facing your DBE program in your state every year. Later when the committee meets you can see the results of that and it can be ranked and prioritized so that it can provide an on-going documentation list for the concerns from around the country for this committee to be focused on. I am willing to undertake this and foot the resources for the research survey. (Mike Baney)
H.Some committees actually hold a mid year conference solely to discuss what research topics are important and if we can look into that on either a web base or telecommunications based process so that we don’t have to travel again or go to another meeting, that would be a great way to solicit research questions. (Richard Rolland)
I.I would like to see a compliance drive research model as it relates to the rules and regulations. (Carolyn Jordan)
J.I would like to see how many of the prime contractors are actually complying with the regulations and how many have received wavers saying that it’s not necessary. (Carolyn Jordan)
VIII. INTERN RESEARCH/FUNDING (Committee)
A.I do believe we need to somehow build students into our research through scholarship and internship. TRB has got a lot of resources and I know they have an opportunity for scholarship in research. (Ruben Anthony)
D.The DOT has a funding source and maybe it’s for the service part of DOT. In talking to some of the members from Cincinnati, we discussed requesting $80,000 from DOT to partnership with them and carry out this idea because nobody has actually given any feedback on how those dollars are actually being spent. (Carolyn Jordan)
C.FHWA civil rights head quarters with Fredrick Issler, they also do OJT/support services funding and so DOTs have an opportunity to submit generally annually for funding. You have to submit your program and you’re actually going to be evaluated against programs from other states but they do look at some things for labor development, youth development and technical assistance because we do some of those things in our state. (Michele Carter)
D.Also National transportation of highway safety administration has money that has become subject to DBE programs too.
E. I would love to volunteer to have a portion of my interns this summer be involved in finding funding for this internship idea. (Ruben Anthony)
F.Is there a champion for the cause? No volunteer; Charles Wright suggested Ruben Anthony Jr as champion. Shay Hope agreed to support effort (Eugene)
IX. COMENTS/RESEARCH PROBLEM STATEMENTS (Steve Dewitt)
- Published the first “New directions in transportation construction” and includes description of all the committees that are a part of our construction group.
- TRB as an organization are looking to make sure that things that are being done under the umbrella of this organization are still germane, still make sense, and is still valid and important. TRB should really be TRRB because it’s about research and relationships, not just research.
- I read in the minutes from last year that the TRB committee was asked about what they see happening in the DBE community in the next 20 years and I don’t recall us offering any ideas. (EugeneJohnson)
- If TRB committee is not submitting research problem statements, then I suggest that they are not doing what they are expected to do.
- It’s not just a matter of TRB committee producing, but people should empathize with some of the challenges that we face of taking all that time to develop a well-stated research statement and then for it not to be valued. We did hire an intern and we have research being done, but they wanted us to contract it out. So realize, it’s not that we’re are saying that we don’t want to submit statements, but we have a challenge with people valuing what we do submit and so that has a dampening affect on our commitment to put these forward. Ruben has done some hard-core research himself that we prepared and presented today. So we are getting there, we are making progress, we are moving forward. Again, it’s a challenge to get this community of researchers interested in our area. (Eugene’s response to above comment)
- We look at the role of this committee being to help promote research in particular areas so that’s where my comments were coming from. (Steve Dewitt)
- Some of the challenges that we face are common among the DBE programs in other states. One issue that we all have is the challenge of federally funded congressionally passed affirmative action programs. And some people who don’t buy into that may not do a whole lot of research on it. (Fred Heil)
- Can we from a research prospective, since that’s what we’re about, if we’re able to accomplish an annual web survey where we touch base with all 50 states and we can prioritize what the concerns are, the needs, the problems and the issues are and some how come up with the top 5 problems, it shouldn’t take us too much to turn those into research problem statements. (Mike Baney)
- It would be interesting to do a research study to show what happens when a DBE firm “graduates” from the program. Do they go on and thrive, or do they go out of business eventually? What is the success rate of graduated DBE firms? (Michele & Joann)
- This would be a great research problem statement (Eugene Johnson)
- I will post the format for research problem statements to the website (Mike Baney)
- Maybe some of these problem research statements would be better as a presentation
- That is an excellent idea because even if they don’t choose to fund it as a research problem statement, that doesn’t stop us from doing a presentation on it because people need to know what’s going on from our prospective. (Eugene Johnson)
X. Two dimensions for a potential model of continuous research (EugeneJohnson)
1. The ongoing DBE program web survey
- Eugene summarized the “Issues List” submitted by National peers
- Is the NCHRP web only, document 120 “A Survey of States Practices for Protecting Transportation Agencies Against Construction & DBE Fraud Including Use of Contractor Suspension & Debarment” a product of this committee? (Michelle Flamer)
- Is there a measurement criteria that the firm who wins a research project must meet so as to prevent the degradation of the project?
- It is challenging for DBE practitioners to have what we do ‘valued’ by these committees which is a dampening effect on participants. It appears that negative info about DBE program gets funded quicker than positive.
- Something needs to be generated from committee meetings. “DBE Program 30 years from now – progress or stagnation”
2. The Student Research Intern Program
XI. 2009 SESSION TOPICS (Eugene Johnson)
We do need people to volunteer as facilitators, suggestions for topics, methods for choosing the topic and also people to present the chosen topics. We have received suggestions for topics that need to be discussed at this meeting from various people on our list from around the country. Quick highlights of theses topics are:
- Have Frank Waltose from FHWA talk about the work that primes do after the award to get DBE participation
- Olivia Fonsecka from CA-DOT sent info in on personal net worth that we should discuss
- Debbie James from Ohio talked about access to capital
- Debra Galiegos talked about strategies used to deal with over concentration
- Frank Adams of MI-DOT talked about bonding capacity
- Martha Kinley of ID-DOT talked about personal net worth
- Cherry Moryan talked about PNW
- Lynise Devance from FHWA talked about NCHRP study and the joint DBE program work group
- Kaylen Darren from FHWA talked about supportive services
- Larry Guire from FHWA talked about certification reciprocity
- Representation from Washington talked about removal of certification and the UCP
- Debra James of OH-DOT talked about competitiveness
- Someone talked about airport concessions
- Roger Beerbom of IO-DOT talked about prompt payment
- Keneth Woodrof of FHWA talked about DBE complaints in regards to unions enforcing their pay agreements differently among DBEs and non-DBEs
- Jacki Laperier from Maine DBE firms qualifying regarding technical ability to perform on the projects and more clarity on what parameters are in place for the definition of disadvantaged
- Joy Hamilton of FHWA talked about the lack of and the dwindling of minority contractors receiving contracts especially in smaller states
- PPP (public, private partnerships) affects on DBE firms
- The after affects of these court cases (Contractors not meeting their goals or having none)
- PNW
- Graduating DBE firms: Do they thrive or die. (Recommended that we look at race)
- Increasing the capacity of the nations small disadvantaged businesses
- Can race neutral alone address discrimination?
XII. Potential Speakers
SUGGESTED PAPER, PRESENTATION, SYNTHESIS / SPEAKER / SUGGESTED BY- Facilitator: Arrington out of Phoenix
- Facilitator: Dave Manning of NTSA
- Facilitator: Denise Bailey of Milligan
- Facilitator: Rebecca Tanra of Colorado FTA, Region 5
- Facilitator: Andre McCrae?
- Facilitator: Brenda Nnambi of WashingtonState
- Presentation: Graduating DBE firms: do they thrive or die, an comparison by race
Michelle Flamer / Michelle Flamer
Joann Luder
- Presentation: OCIP & Bonding
Cliff Sexnader? / O Brad Anderson
- Presentation: The After Math for DBE Programs- Running Race Neutral Programs & How DBE Programs Operate after losing the court challenge. i.e. WashingtonState
- Research Paper & Presentation: “Increasing the Capacity of the Nation’s Small Disadvantaged Business [SDB’s] Business
- Research Paper: From Theory to Practice- Model Disparity Study findings to include a case study presentation by a state practicing the ‘best practice’ of the model
- Research Statement: Can Race Neutral Alone Address Discrimination
- Research Statement: DBE Program 30 years from now – progression, regression, stagnation
- Synthesis: How OCIP can leverage bonding
- Synthesis: Public Private Partnerships and their effects
Eugene Johnson / Wisconsin DOT
Eleanor Mason Ramsey / Mason Tillman & Associates
Richard Rolland / NW Tribal Technical Assistance @ Eastern WashingtonUniversity
Carlton Brooks / PN DBE Support Services Manager
Mike Behney
Frank Petruskevich
Michael Shermer
Albert Davenport / DBE Goal Setting Consulting
JoAnn Lubart / PNDOT
Sherry Morian / PN DOT DBE
Shay Hope / VDOT
Reggie Mosley / VDOT
Brad Anderson / Global Risk Manager
Ruben Anthony / Wisconsin DOT
Michael Cooper / Georgia DOT
Eulois Clekly / Wilbur Smith Associates of Fairfax, VA
Ward Zirby / Director DBESS, Info Tech
James Briggs / Airports Council International Trade Association
Carolyn Jordan / Black Roadbuilders of Gary, IN
Scheryl Portee / Attorney, FTA doing DBE
Charles Wright / Flrodia A & M
Jerry Zimmerman
Earl Willaims
Jeery Williams
Courtney Craig
Marvin Eason
GingerRiver
Andrea Brenan
XIII. VOLUNTEERS (Committee)