Rule Change Hits Landscape Contractors

Under the change, contractors earn credit only for work they do under the specific codes in which they are certified. If a sub contractor, landscape contractor or DBE contractor performs work classified under another code, the work doesn?EUR??,,????'???t count toward the project?EUR??,,????'???s DBE

A rule change has made it harder for contractors to meet participation goals for minorities and women on state projects. Starting this month, Oregon Department of Transportation projects have tighter requirements for disadvantaged business enterprise (DBE), or landscape contractors.

The president of Valley Growers, a DBE landscape contractor noted, one upside of the rule change is that it could provide more oversight to make sure the process isn?EUR??,,????'???t abused. Some DBE subcontractors will subcontract their own work to non-DBE companies. That?EUR??,,????'???s something we need to weed out.?EUR??,,????'??

Prime contractors make sure their subcontractors meet participation goals, said Tim Hendrix, manager with Wildish Standard Paving Co., but they?EUR??,,????'???ve never had to go deep into the details. ?EUR??,,????'??In the past, prime contractors have relied on subcontractors to give us quotes and haven?EUR??,,????'???t paid any attention to the coding, because that wasn?EUR??,,????'???t required,?EUR??,,????'?? he said.

?EUR??,,????'??Contractors are going to have to be much more diligent in pursuit of subcontractors,?EUR??,,????'?? Hendrix said. ?EUR??,,????'??The subcontractor community needs to look carefully at whatever they?EUR??,,????'???re certified in and say, ?EUR??,,????'??Are those the accurate codes for the work I need to bid??EUR??,,????'??? ?EUR??,,????'??