RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Veterans have provided and continue to provide extraordinary service to the United States; and
WHEREAS, Millions of veterans, who have an exceptional sense of honor, duty, leadership, commitment and respect strengthened by their military experience, have returned home to their communities as productive citizens; and
WHEREAS, It is necessary, fair and appropriate for us to do all we can to help those who have done so much for our country to succeed in their transition from military service to a working civilian life; and
WHEREAS, For the past three years, Illinois' veteran unemployment rate has been higher than the national veteran unemployment rate, including in the year 2015, when there were over 35,000 unemployed veterans in Illinois; and
WHEREAS, Upon returning from active duty, many veterans experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition that includes flashbacks, anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness. Long term unemployment can cause many veterans to feel isolated, which in turn can exacerbate symptoms of PTSD; and
WHEREAS, The Federal and state governments have taken measures to promote veteran-owned businesses by awarding bid incentives or setting aside a percentage of government procurement contracts to be reserved to such businesses; and
WHEREAS, The U.S. government has established a government-wide procurement set-aside goal of reserving not less than 3 percent of the total value of all prime contract and subcontract awards for each fiscal year for participation by small business concerns owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans; and
WHEREAS, The State of Illinois requires not less than 3% of the total dollar amount of State contracts to be established as a goal to be awarded to qualified service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and veteran-owned small businesses; and
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago currently has a bid incentive program for small business enterprise and veteran-owned business enterprise joint ventures, whereby the Chief Procurement Officer allocates a bid incentive of 5 percent of a contract's base price to such qualified joint ventures; and
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago desires to further promote and encourage the continued economic development of small businesses owned and controlled by veterans; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and members of the City Council of the City of Chicago do hereby direct the City's Department of Procurement Services to study best practices