Do I need to certify my business with the City of Tacoma?

The City is transitioning its SBE list to the State of Washington’s Office of Minority & Women’s Business Enterprise (OMWBE) list beginning January 1, 2020. Although you do not have to be on the City's list at that point, to ensure that you do not have any lapse in certification between being on the City's list and the State's list, you can re-certify with the city in January 2020 while working on your application with the State. As your renewal date gets closer, a member of the City's Equity in Contracting staff will work with you as you prepare your documents for the State’s list. During this process, we are monitoring the amount of time it takes for a small business to get on the State’s SBE, MBE, WBE, and/or MWBE list(s). The City will continue to use its list during this transition and is preparing to shut down its list on December 31, 2020.   

You can find the re-certification documents under the

 'forms' web page.

What type of State certification do I need? 

1. MBE - Minority Business Enterprise
2. WBE - Woman Business Enterprise
3. WMBE - Minority Business Enterprise
4. SBE - Small Business Enterprise

While other individuals may be found to be socially disadvantaged on a case-by-case basis, in general, to be an eligible business owner you must:

• Be a minority or a woman. (A minority is defined as African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native, or Native American.) 
• Own at least 51 percent of the business and show contribution of capital and expertise. 
• Control the managerial and day-to-day operations of the business. 
• Be economically disadvantaged. (Being economically disadvantaged as a business owner is defined as having a personal net worth less than $1.32 million, not including a person's primary residence or an applicant business.) 

What does the State certification cost?

There is no fee for SBE's.

For MBE's, MWBE's and WBE's the fees are:

• $50 for Sole Proprietor
• $75 for a Partnership
• $100 for an LLC
• $100 for a Corporation

New Required Compliance Software

Our “go live” date was January 1, 2020 after which all of the above functions are being processed online through our system.  The systems are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and allow contractors to remain in compliance with the reporting requirements of TMC 1.07 and TMC 1.90.

Compliance Reporting System

This web-based software system is similar or currently used by other Puget Sound area government agencies such as King County, Sound Transit, Tacoma Public Schools and the City of Seattle among others. It is accessible to all prime contractors and subcontractors, and includes the following key features: 

• Automated communication with contractors via email regarding compliance issues 
• Submission of contractor’s monthly utilization reports online, and automated tracking of their progress (or lack of thereof) towards meeting the MWBE participation goals 
• Automatic verification and concurrence of subcontractor payments 
• Elimination of paper-based reporting 
  

This tool is used for monitoring MBE, WBE, and SBE/DBE utilization on a contract-by-contract basis. It also provides a link to the current Directory of Minority, Women and Veteran-Owned Business Enterprises certified by Washington State and the City of Tacoma. 

To access the system and for free ongoing online System Training classes, visit Equity in Contracting Management System/B2Gnow. For vendors currently using the system, your same username and password will be used to login. If you have never logged on or do not know your username and/or password, click the Account Lookup link or the forgot username/password link on the portal sign-in page. Please contact EICOffice@cityoftacoma.org for additional log-in assistance. 

In addition to updating your contact information, review and add all subcontractors on contracts where you are listed as the prime.

Please visit Equity in Contracting Management System/B2Gnow and click on 'Training & Events' to sign up for “Contract Compliance Reporting – Vendor Training” to receive additional instruction on how to login, add subcontractors, and report subcontractor payment data. 

Electronic Certified Payroll Set-Up and Training Courses

Electronic payroll submittals will occur via a web-based system, accessed online by a web browser.  Each contractor and subcontractor will be given a log on identification and password to access the LCP Tracker system. Instruction to assist both administrators and contractors through the set up and export process can be found here. Again, this requirement will be ‘flowed down’ to every lower-tier subcontractor and vendor required to provide labor compliance documentation for this project. 

Use of the system will involve data entry of weekly payroll information including employee identification, labor classification, total hours worked and hours worked on this project, wage and benefit rates paid, etc. LCP Tracker’s software can interface with many payroll and accounting software programs that generate a ‘comma delimited file' (.csv). If your program does not have this capability, LCP Tracker can likely build an interface to communicate with your accounting software. 

To get started, the prime contractor will set you up as a vendor your company will receive and email with a user ID and temporary password.  Once your company has been assigned to a project, you will get a second email advising your assignment to a project.   

As a contractor, you will need to ensure that all your lower tier subcontractors are set up so that they may be set up in the LCP Tracker system as well.  Once enrolled, you and your lower tier subcontractors will receive a user name and password from a no-reply email address with LCP Tracker. Once your account is setup, LCP Tracker provides two convenient, standard training options: 

Option 1: Computer-Based Training Courses.   

Option 2: Pre-recorded videos can be viewed at any time by logging into the LCP Tracker website at https://prod.lcptracker.net/ and following these simple steps: 

• Enter your user name and password
• Select the "Training Materials" link located at the top of the page
• Select Contractor Training Videos
• For questions on uploading payroll files into LCP Tracker, please contact support at (714) 669-0052 option 4 or email support at support@LCPtracker.com.