Lamont Robinson, director of the Milwaukee County Office of Economic Inclusion, presented an informational report to the Milwaukee County Committee on Transportation and Transit on participation of certified firms in county contracting for November and December 2024 and for the full year 2024.

Robinson summarized monthly totals and participation rates. For November 2024 he said the county recorded just over $16 million in contracts, with about $9 million deemed eligible for DBE/TBE participation; certified firms held roughly $6.3 million of the eligible dollars, which Robinson described as 70.3% of eligible contract dollars and 38.7% of the total contract dollars for the month. For December 2024 he reported just over $35 million in contracts, about $1.8 million eligible for participation, with certified firms holding approximately $820,000 — about 45.2% of eligible dollars and 2.3% of the total for the month.

Robinson provided a participation breakdown for the two-month period that the office recorded as roughly $7.1 million in contracts awarded to certified firms: about $680,000 to Asian-owned firms, $107,000 to Black-owned firms, $626,000 to Hispanic-owned firms, $4.8 million to women-owned firms and $912,000 to small businesses, as read to the committee.

For calendar year 2024, Robinson said countywide contracts totaled about $468 million with roughly $167 million deemed eligible for DBE/TBE participation. He reported that certified firms held about $62,006,000 of eligible dollars — 37.39% of eligible dollars and 13.3% of total contract dollars awarded in 2024.

Supervisor Ekblad asked specifically about airport concession contracts referenced in the staff description; Robinson said concession contracts are often longer-term (he estimated 10–20 years in some cases) and that he would confirm exact renegotiation dates and email details to the committee. Supervisor Bilinski asked how categories are counted; Robinson explained that firms are rolled into the women-owned category if a woman is an owner even when ethnicity is not majority-owned, and that the racial/ethnic categories include both male- and female-owned firms when they meet majority-ownership criteria.

The committee made a formal motion to receive and place the report on file. The motion by Supervisor Ekblad passed on a roll call vote, 5-0.

Ending: Robinson said he would follow up with dates for airport concession contract renegotiations and provide requested details to supervisors; the informational report will be appended to committee files.