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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, or DBE, contractors.

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

鈥淚t happens fairly regularly,鈥� said Jill Miller, program manager with ODOT‘s DBE program. Subcontractors often broaden their expertise on job.

鈥淪ome firms were using that process to gain experience in those areas,鈥� she said.

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

鈥淐ontractors are going to have to be much more diligent in pursuit of subcontractors,鈥� Hendrix said. 鈥淭he subcontractor community needs to look carefully at whatever they’re certified in and say, 鈥楢re those the accurate codes for the work I need to bid?’ 鈥�

The change puts Oregon in line with a clarification the U.S. Department of Transportation posted on its Web site last July. It wasn’t a widely publicized change, Miller said.

鈥淭hey not only didn’t give us any warning, they didn’t give us any notice when they did post that,鈥� she said. State transportation officials started meeting with prime contractors and subcontractors to find a way to put the new rules into effect.

The Oregon Columbia chapter of Associated General Contractors last week joined the National Association of Minority Contractors of Oregon for a meeting on the rule change.

鈥淓specially in the worst contraction in our industry in at least a generation, any change of rules is going to draw intense interest and a lot of questions,鈥� said John Rakowitz, public affairs director for the AGC chapter. 鈥淲hen you change the rules about how people bid and how you meet DBE goals, people want to know how that will work.

鈥淚f there’s a fear out there, it’s (whether) all the contractors out there know early enough exactly how to respond to this.鈥�

Vicqui Guevara is president of Valley Growers, a DBE landscape contractor. One upside of the rule change is that it could provide more oversight to make sure the process isn’t abused, she said.

Some DBE subcontractors will subcontract their own work to non-DBE companies, Guevara said. 鈥淭hat’s something we need to weed out.鈥�

Although Oregon has exceeded its annual DBE goal for the last two fiscal years, Miller said, that will become more difficult under the new rules. The ODOT goal calls for 11.5 percent participation, including a 1-percent race-conscious goal.

鈥淚 expect that, because of this change, there will be some credit that has been allowed that will cease,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat’s going to require more effort by the prime contractors.鈥�

Prime contractors such as Wildish are trying to spread the word, Hendrix said. First, subcontractors need to become certified under every code they’re qualified to work under.

And second, prime contractors need to make certain they’re tracking how they employ their DBE subcontractors. 鈥淵ou don’t want to lose a job, with all the work it takes, in today’s market, because you missed something procedurally,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t costs money to put together estimates and bids,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you lose it because you’re not dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s, it would be a shame.鈥�