New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon and County Council President Christopher Bullock announced that a minority-owned business forum to be held on Thursday, February 20 in an effort to diversify the various vendors and contractors that do business with the County.
This forum is designed to provide minority-owned businesses with insight on how to conduct business with the County and how to become a registered vendor. The County Executive agreed to host this forum for the second straight year at the request of Bullock.
“Millions of dollars are going out to out-of-state contractors and we cannot allow that to continue,” Gordon said. “That is a long-term recipe for disaster. We must give back to the New Castle County businesses that pay their fair share of taxes.”
“The business of America is business,” Bullock said. “This forum will provide an opportunity for Minority owned businesses to participate in the overall mission of County Executive Tom Gordon’s vision of economic inclusion in New Castle County. “We welcome this emerging partnership,” he added. “Together we can grow”.
The forum is being coordinated by the New Castle County Department of Administration, which oversees procurement of services. Chief of Administrative Services Tonney Gardner, the department head, said information has been spreading about the forum by word of mouth.
“This forum is designed to provide insight to minorities on how to conduct business with the county and become a registered vendor,” Gardner said. “I look forward to a great turnout.”
Minority businesses must be registered with the State Office of Supplier Diversity in order to do business with the County, Gardner said. To that end, the State of Delaware will be participating in the forum next month.Space is limited so vendors are asked to please RSVP early. Potential participants are asked to respond to respond to MinorityBusinessForum@nccde.org by February 13, 2014.
Registration will be from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. February 20 with the Forum taking place from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room of the James Gilliam Community Services Building, located at 77 Reads Way, New Castle, DE 19720.
