Section 29-1-1503 - Identifying barriers to entry for historically underutilized businesses in local government procurement - pilot program(1) No later than August 13, 2021, the department of local affairs shall establish a pilot program to help local governments identify perceptual and substantial barriers to entry for historically underutilized businesses in local government procurement. The department of local affairs shall ensure that the local governments that opt in to the pilot program are representative of the local governments that intersect the rural, urban, and suburban geographies of the state and are representative of the varying types of local governments. The pilot program must include at least five diverse local governments.(2) The local governments participating in the pilot program shall:(a) Identify program implementation needs, such as labor and technology;(b) Determine the appropriate size contracts that would benefit from a program;(c) Determine the appropriate type of contracts that would benefit from a program, such as, construction or service contracts, or short-term or long-term contracts;(d) Establish a reasonable threshold for the amount of a local government's operating budget that should be allocated to the establishment and maintenance of a program;(e) Understand the available program software and costs;(f) Determine how we can standardize the data across local governments to being submitted to the state;(g) Determine the required minimum participation goals or participation benchmarks of historically underutilized businesses to determine if the local government's program is fair;(h) Determine which types of historically underutilized businesses, as specified in section 29-1-1502(1)(b), appear to be more or less impacted;(i) Create a sample program that all local governments may use and articulate the necessary steps to build a program; and(j) Help articulate program goals and targets, such as determining why a program is important for the local government and what outcomes the local governments wish to see from program implementation.(2) A pilot program participant may collaborate with the department of local affairs and the general assembly on future legislation requiring local governments to establish programs.(3)(a) In January 2022, the department of local affairs shall report on the progress of the pilot project as part of the department's presentation to its committee of reference at a hearing held pursuant to section 2-7-203(2)(a) of the "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act".(b) In January 2023, the department of local affairs shall include the findings of the pilot project as part of the department's presentation to its committee of reference at a hearing held pursuant to section 2-7-203(2)(a) of the "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act".Added by 2021 Ch. 216,§1, eff. 6/7/2021.