My favorite head scratcher in a while…
My wife owns 50% of our business.
I own 50% of our business.
That makes us 100% Black and Woman Owned.
The city of Saint Paul has a Cert preference for Minority and Women majority owned businesses.
We can’t sign up because neither of us has the majority.
@pratik Ah, but, that messes up all sorts of other stuff and creates other headaches we'd have to cover for. That said, it may be our only real choice.
@patrickrhone Might it be possible to give your daughter a 2% stake in the business in order to tip the scales?
@chrisfoley It would still tip them evenly in both directions no matter how much we give her. It has to be majority one or the other as the policy is written.
@Miraz That is likely the only solution but will be a ton of paperwork and other issues. Not a simple as it sounds.
@patrickrhone I know absolutely nothing about this. But a quick read suggests that if your wife and daughter have a combined majority or you and your daughter have a combine majority then you would qualify? Of course, paper work and lawyers and such.
“Minority-owned Business Enterprise (MBE)—an eligible business that additionally: • is at least fifty-one (51) percent owned by one or more minority persons, and • has its management and daily business operations controlled by one or more minority persons who own it.
Women-owned Business Enterprise (WBE)—an eligible business that additionally: • is at least fifty-one (51) percent owned by one or more women, and • has its management and daily business operations controlled by one or more women who own it”
https://www.stpaul.gov/DocumentCenter/Government/Human%20Rights%20&%20Equal%20Economic%20Opportunity/Contract%20Compliance%20&%20Business%20Development/CERT/CERT%20Programeligibility%20criteria2012-09_201310161222529501.pdf
@patrickrhone Uuuuuuuuuuuggghhh. Intersectionality strikes again! Time for a lawyer to get involved? There’s always a loophole. Or, better yet, lobby to fix this oversight as it’s essentially a “bug” in the law.
@fgtech @patrickrhone How is it a bug? They don’t want placeholder minority/women individuals appointed without a majority stake. In less developed countries, we call these benaami properties i.e. the oppressed class is added to the business only to take advantage of such subsidies but effectively the minority stakeholders have no power.
@pratik @patrickrhone Your point is well taken, but the purpose of the policy is to support minority- and women-owned businesses. This one is 100% both, but does not qualify. That’s a whopper of a bug.
@pratik I’d say it’s a an oversight for those (admittedly probably rare) cases like ours. Maybe not a bug, per se, but certainly an unexpected consequence (to continue the software metaphor) of a feature.
@fgtech but not by the same person. There are certain subsidies aimed at intersectionality - black woman owned businesses. @patrickrhone
@pratik @fgtech I really think the debate you are having centers around intent. The intent is a good one in this case. A meaningful one at that. It’s just that we fall into an unexpected use case. Therefore, either they have to re-write or provide and exception to the policy or we have to change the split of our business. And, if we know anything about government, we know that us changing our split, though a huge pain in the pooky for us, is the easier option. The other is us not participating in the system too.
@patrickrhone @fgtech Unfortunately the law is usually aimed at ensuring that such subsidies aren’t taken advantage of. Yup, those two options seem to be your best option
