A view of Lake Eola in downtown Orlando. Credit: City of Orlando

After voting to suspend a decades-old Minority and Women Business Enterprise program earlier this month in order to comply with federal anti-DEI executive orders, Orange County commissioners on Tuesday opted to establish a new small business enterprise program instead as a less-risky replacement.

The new program, which is currently open to public input and feedback, is meant to help encourage the use of small businesses in county contracts for the provision of goods and services. According to the proposed ordinance, the program “is intended to be a race and gender-neutral program.”

Sheena Ferguson, manager of the county’s Business Development Division, said during a public hearing on the issue Tuesday that a small business program had already been in the works in response to less-than-promising findings from a 2023 disparity study.

That study, conducted by the firm Griffin & Strong, confirmed that there continued to be a basis for the county’s MWBE program, pointing to a “significant underutilization” of minority- and female-owned contractors in county procurement and contracting data.

The county’s suspension of its MWBE program, according to Ferguson, prompted county staff to “accelerate the timeline” for the creation of the new small business program.

“It is designed as a race and gender-neutral initiative, and it’s going to be focused on the growth of the small businesses that are located in Orange County,” Ferguson explained.

Why was the previous program suspended?

A federal executive order issued by the Trump administration in January (titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity) has made local and state governments wary of continuing to operate any program or initiative that could be interpreted as promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

County records note that the order from the White House “expresses opposition to programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (‘DEI’)” and require that recipients of federal funding like Orange County “certify that they do not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate federal anti-discrimination laws.” 

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This has made the county’s legal team cautious. Continuing to operate such a program, they say, could cause the county to lose its federal funding, and could even result in other consequences — like the county being forced to pay damages or criminal charges being levied against county officials.

“I spent a full career putting people in jail,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, former Orange County sheriff, stated earlier this month. “I don’t plan on going to jail because of violating the law.”

The city of Orlando, Palm Beach County and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority overseeing operations at the Orlando International Airport, among other public employers, have also halted similar programs meant to support minority and women-owned businesses, in response to the White House’s order.

“We really didn’t have a choice,” assistant county attorney Heather Wallace explained. “As we discussed numerous times, unfortunately the federal government has put a requirement into federal grants that we must certify that we have no diversity, equity and inclusion programs that violate law in order to continue to receive federal funding. To continue the MWBE program would have risked hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding that the county currently receives.”

Federal funding for Head Start — a program offering early childhood development services for disadvantaged families — in addition to grant funds for affordable housing and homelessness services, among other programs, would have been on the chopping block, the county’s legal team argued.

“We’d be negatively impacting real people and lives in our community,” Demings remarked, ahead of the vote to suspend the program.

What should I know about the new program?

First of all, it’s still in the works. Mayor Demings and Orange County commissioners voted Tuesday to establish the program, but county staff are still coming up with final details on how the program will work and who will be eligible to participate.

The county is holding 21 public meetings over the next several weeks (beginning Friday, July 18) in order to get feedback from local small businesses and other stakeholders who are interested in participating in the program. 

The goal, to start, is for the Small Business Enterprise contracts to make up at least 15 percent of participation in the county’s contracts. Jose Figueroa, president of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida, however, noted during public comment that 15 percent is below the goal outlined for the now-suspended MWBE program, which sought to have 24 percent MWBE participation in county contracts.

“It’s a 9 percent loss in opportunity for small and minority business owned programs, businesses that have historically struggled to gain access to public contracts,” he argued.

In order to participate in the program, small businesses will need to become certified as SBE contractors through the county’s business development division by submitting an application. Initial certification will be valid for up to two years.

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County Commissioner Mayra Uribe, who recently launched a campaign for county mayor, said she wants to see county staff make it easier for small businesses to get plugged in to the program by addressing concerns she’s heard in the community about bonding issues, payment and other red tape. “What I hear consistently is people say it’s too hard [getting contracts] with the county, so they just don’t even do it.”

County staff are hoping to work out some of these grievances through their public meeting process. They’re interested, for instance, in getting feedback on eligibility requirements for small businesses based on their gross receipts, the size of the business, and the maximum number of employees a business can have to qualify.

Ferguson, who previously worked with businesses affiliated with the MWBE program, said she’s heard “mixed” feedback on eligibility criteria, particularly as it concerns gross receipts. “Unfortunately, we hear it on both sides. We hear the larger firms that are successful, they want the larger revenue [limit] because they’ve been successful,” she said. But smaller businesses and subcontractors are concerned that they’ll have a harder time securing that work.

Uribe argued in favor of increasing gross receipt limits, sharing that the county’s current limits are “outdated” compared to what’s used elsewhere. “When you look at net worth, we’re so outdated on the national level. Small businesses are considered up to $50 million, yet we’re still sitting at $2.2 million. We’re hurting small businesses from growing,” she said.

Wallace, the county attorney, said they had “no intention” of maintaining a $2.2 million limit on gross receipts in order to qualify for the program. They’re hoping to get more feedback on that from business owners in the community. “We are looking for a very realistic number,” she reassured.

You can find more information about the new program and public meetings the county is holding on developing its finer details here.

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This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2025.

General news reporter for Orlando Weekly, with a focus on state and local government and workers' rights. You can find her bylines in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, In These Times, and Facing South.