Office of Small Business Development and Affirmative Action
Hall of Records, Room 449A
Tel: 973-621-2010 Fax: 973-621-2009

Director: Deborah E. Collins, Esq.

The mandate of the Essex County Office of Small Business Development and Affirmative Action is to ensure equal opportunity and fair play in contracting, procurement, and employment within the County of Essex.

In 2002 before entering his first term in office, Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. established an Affirmative Action Committee as part of his 200-member Transition Team. When he took office on January 1, 2003, he created the Office of Cultural Diversity and Affirmative Action. The volunteer members from the Transition Team’s Affirmative Action Committee remained involved with the DiVincenzo administration as an Advisory Committee for the Office of Cultural Diversity and Affirmative Action.

As the County Executive decided that more needed to be done to promote equal opportunities for access to the County’s procurement system, a Disparity Study Commission was appointed. A consultant was retained to conduct public hearings, examine records and provide recommendations.

The findings were presented to the public in October 2005 at the conclusion of an eight-month study. It resulted in the December opening of the Office of Small Business Development and Economic Opportunity, designed to help the County make their public contratcting and procurement policies and procedures more available to small, woman and minority-owned businesses. Deborah E. Collins, Esq. was appointed SBDEO Officer, and in 2007 assumed the responsibilities of Affirmative Action Officer and Executive Director of the Economic Development Corporation of Essex County.

In 2006, the County awarded $14,977,087 to small, women, and minority contractors through greater access to information and more opportunity to bid on goods and services. This figure represents 10.3 percent of the $145 million that the County spent on private contracts in total.

In 2007, the Office unveiled the new Essex County Vendor Registration System. This state-of-the-art registration system is the latest tool to advance the County’s initiative to make information and business opportunities more accessible. Essex is the first county in New Jersey to implement a system of this caliber, which can be accessed by linking to http://vrs.essexcountynj.org. Essex now maintains one of the largest and most current databases of small, women and minority business owners in the State, with over 784 registrants.

In 2008, The County awarded $128,273,711 in private contracts to vendors overall. Small, women, and minority business owners received $39,103,601 or 30.5% of this amount. Specifically, minority business owners received 5.4%; women received 8.8%; and small business owners received 16.5%.

The Office of Small Business Development and Affirmative Action issued its second annual report in December 2007. The County of Essex awarded $32,456,141 to small, women, and minority vendors, 20 percent of the private contracts awarded for that period. This double digit growth in overall contracting activity is directly attributable to the marked increase in the size and number of construction contract awards that these vendors have received to date.

Since its opening, the SBDAA has reached out to the community of small, women and minority business owners through a variety of business expos. The events included the Essex County Procurement Expo, the Women’s Business Enterprise Procurement Expo, Reaching New Heights – Professional Services Procurement Expo, “Meet the Municipal Purchasing Agents,” and “Partnering for Opportunity and Access to Capital” in January 2008.