Baltimore City has updated its $4.5 million mowing contract to be more competitive and equitable. This year, rather than awarding one vendor the entire contract, the mowing solicitation was set up for multiple awards, based on geographic areas, for qualified bidders. Now, the $4.5 million will be redistributed in a way that gives small, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses in Baltimore City an opportunity to bid on this substantial contract.
Improving the procurement policy is one way that the City government works to improve equity. In Baltimore City, equity is defined as closing the gaps in policy, practice and allocation of resources so that race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and income do not predict one’s success, while also improving outcomes for all. In his 2021 State of the City address, Mayor Scott specifically mentioned making the City’s procurement process “more equitable for the women- and Black-owned local businesses right in our backyard.” One way that the City supports business owned by women and people of color is by setting goals for the amount of procurement dollars that must be spent with minority- and women-owned companies.
You have likely noticed that mowing has returned to a 7-day mowing cycle! Mowing was disrupted earlier in the spring, in part because the change to the mowing contract took longer than anticipated. In the meantime, as Friends of Patterson Park Executive Director Jennifer Robinson explained, workers from the City’s maintenance yard mowed the City’s parks.
Now that you know a bit more about the reason for the delay, we hope that you will share this post to help your neighbors understand the City’s work to create long-term, systemic solutions to our procurement process. As noted by our partner at Baltimore City Recreation and Parks (BCRP), this is an issue that spans agencies, systems, and processes citywide.
Have more questions? We’d love to hear from you! Contact friends@pattersonpark.com.
Please take a second to fill out our Mowing Survey!
You know Friends of Patterson Park helps you connect to the park through volunteer opportunities; programs like Zumba, concerts, and Kite Festival; and fundraisers like Wine at Sunset. But we realize you may not know all the great work we do “behind the scenes!” This post is the first in a series that will highlight advocacy and community issues that Friends works on throughout the year.