Companion to our DDC core profile, "DDC's $43 Billion Book." If you're a City-certified M/WBE — or thinking about getting certified — this is the part of DDC that should have your attention.

Certification runs through SBS. City M/WBE certification is issued by the Department of Small Business Services, and participation goals are set solicitation by solicitation under the City's M/WBE law. So check the goal in each DDC bid's front end. It's not one number across the agency; it's a number per job.

“Certification gets you in the door. It doesn't estimate the job, bond it, or staff it.”

The noncompetitive small-purchase door is real, and it's active right now. Look at the two DDC awards on our board this month: special inspections for the Harlem Courthouse exterior ($336,855 to Quality Control Laboratories) and for the Bronx Family and Criminal Courthouse roof ($294,592 to Joadem Corporation). Both were made by the "M/WBE Noncompetitive Small Purchase" method, per DDC's own City Record notices of Aug. 20 and Aug. 21. That method lets the agency award straight to a City-certified M/WBE without full competition, below a $1.5 million ceiling — per MOCS, raised from $1 million in December 2023. Special inspection, testing, surveying and small construction-related services are where DDC is using it. Two for two this month.

Sub opportunities show up on the State Contract Reporter. Primes on DDC jobs advertise their MBE/WBE sub packages there. Two firms are seeking subs right now for the Washington Irving library renovation in Bushwick — due Aug. 26, so that's this week.

Design-build and CM-build packages carry their own goals — and on those jobs, the M/WBE plan belongs to the shortlisted team, not the City. If you want in, get on their sub lists at the RFQ stage. By the time the team's picked, the list is built.

Now, the honest part. Certification gets you in the door. It doesn't estimate the job, bond it, or staff it. The firms taking these awards still had to be able to do the work. Get certified, then be ready to perform when the small-purchase call comes.