OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
CITY OF CHICAGO
LORI E. LIGHTFOOT
MAYOR
EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 2023-14
WHEREAS, in recent years, the City of Chicago has prioritized a more inclusive and equitable approach towards contracting to counter decades of disinvestment in communities across the City and continuing disparities in market participation by minorities and women in the wider economy; and
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago possesses one of the most robust, dynamic, and diverse economies in the world; and
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago, despite its great wealth and productivity, nevertheless possesses an unfortunate legacy of racial, ethnic, gender-based, and economic inequities, discrimination, and disparities in health, wealth and wellbeing; and
WHEREAS, Mayor Lightfoot has previously mandated Minority-Owned Business Enterprise and Women-Owned Business Enterprise Utilization Planning and Quarterly Reporting, as well as Business Diversity Reporting in Executive Order 2021-2; and
WHEREAS, the City Council under Mayor Lightfoot's leadership codified the Office of Contracting Equity with increased resources in the Department of Procurement Services; and
WHEREAS, ensuring prompt payment of all City vendors is vital to the economic vitality of City vendors and the economy of the City of Chicago as a whole, and will incentivize more companies to consider future bid opportunities with the City; and
WHEREAS, to improve the timeliness of City payment to vendors, the Department of Finance and the Department of Procurement Services issued the Report of the Prompt Payment Working Group and established the Prompt Payment Initiative under the direction of Mayor Lightfoot; and
WHEREAS, the unbundling of contracts into smaller or more targeted scopes of work creates additional opportunities for local small and mid-sized businesses to undertake City of Chicago contracts; and
WHEREAS, in the past there has been a common reliance on bid waivers when procuring general contracting services under redevelopmen...
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