Dear Friends,

I ran for office to make change, and I get frustrated when I hear from the community that local government is doing something just because that's the way we've always done it— even when we know it’s not working. I believe in thinking critically and solving problems — which means we can't just keep doing things the same way and expect different results.

Last week, we released Frederick County's first-ever procurement disparity study, which takes a close look at who the government contracts with. The results show we can do better.

Minority and women owned businesses make up almost 18% of our economy, but the study found the County awarded about 5% of its contracts to these businesses over the past five years. The study also found barriers that make it harder for some businesses to compete for County contracts.

We are using these findings to build a more inclusive procurement system.

You can learn more about this work at two upcoming meetings:

April 20 at 6p.m. at the C. Burr Artz Library

April 24 at 3p.m. at the Urbana Library

I especially encourage our local, small business owners to come out to these meetings to learn more and share your thoughts about this important work.

If you are a small business owner in Frederick County, please also consider taking our Small Business Enterprise (SBE) Community Feedback Survey to share more about your experiences doing business in our community.

Sincerely,