EXHIBIT4
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY PLAN REQUIREMENT
I.INTRODUCTION
As set forth in the Northwestern University Policy Statement on Enhanced Economic Opportunity, which is attached hereto, NorthwesternUniversity is committed to the goal of enhancing economic opportunities for minority/women/disadvantaged/ locally owned business enterprises. The following constitutes the economic opportunity plan requirement that shall govern the activities of Contractor, Subcontractors, Sub-subcontractors and Suppliers engaged to perform work on the Project. Each Contractor is responsible for ensuring that each Subcontractor, Sub-subcontractor and Supplier who performs work or provides services or materials for the Project complies with each requirement set forth herein.
II.DEFINITIONS
As used in this attachment, the following terms shall have the following meanings indicated.
A."Minority" means a person who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States and who is Black, Hispanic, Asian-American or Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaskan native.
B."Minority Business Enterprise" ("MBE") means a business that is Owned and Controlled (as herein defined) by one or more Minority persons.
C."Women Business Enterprise" ("WBE") means a business that is Owned and Controlled by one or more women.
D."Disadvantaged Business Enterprise" ("DBE") means a small business that is owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals in accordance with U.S. Department of Transportation Regulation 49 Code of Federal Regulations.
E."Local Business Enterprise"("LBE") means a place of substantial business activity located in the City of Evanston's corporate city limits. Status as an LBE must be demonstrated to the satisfaction of NorthwesternUniversity.
F."Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Individuals" means those individuals who are citizens of the United States (or lawfully admitted permanent residents) and who are Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Asian-Pacific Americans, Asian-Indian American or women regardless of ethnicity, and any other minorities or individuals found to be disadvantaged by the Small Business Administration pursuant to Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act.
G."Owned"means a business which is (1) a sole proprietorship legitimately owned by a Minority person or women, (2) a partnership or joint venture in which at least 51 percent of the beneficial ownership interests legitimately are owned by Minority or Women.
H."Controlled" shall be determined by considering the degree to which Minority group members or women participate in direction and management of the partnership, corporation, joint venture or other entity, including consideration of their participation in the decisions affecting the day-to day management and operations of the business, and of their proportionate interest in the capital, assets and profits of the business.
I."Eligible "MBE," "WBE," or "DBE" includes any qualified Contractor, Subcontractor, Sub-subcontractor or Supplier providing labor, services, products or materials to Northwestern, who has been certified by one of the agencies or programs listed below:
- City of Chicago's Department of Purchases, Contracts and Supplies
- Chicago Minority Business Development Council (CMBDC)
- Central Management Services, 2ndStep (CMS)
- Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)
- Women's BusinessDevelopmentCenter (WBDC)
- Small Business Administration 8(a) Program
Other recognized certifications will be considered upon request. The Contractor is responsible for verifying the status of a claimed MBE, WBE or DBE Subcontractor, Sub-subcontractor or Supplier.
J."Certification" means that one of the agencies or programs listed in Section II(I) above has determined on the basis of information provided to the agency or program by the M/W/DBE firm on its application form and investigation into the representations therein, that a business is a bonafide M/W/DBE.
K."Letter of Certification" means official correspondence from one of the agencies or programs listed in Section II(I) above which confirms a firms certification and area of specialization.
L."Contractor" means any person or entity who has a direct contract with Northwestern (in which the parties do not stand in the relationship of an employer and an employee), to provide labor, services, products or materials to Northwestern and has responsibility for the management, implementation, and completion of the entire Project.
M."Sub-subcontractor" means any person or entity who has a direct or indirect contract with a Subcontractor to provide labor, services, products or materials for the Project.
N."Supplier" means any person or entity who has a direct contract with a Contractor, Subcontractor, Sub-subcontractor to provide products or materials for the Project.
O."Work" means the services required by the Contract Documents, whether completed or partially completed, and includes all other labor, materials, equipment and services provided or to be provided by the Contractor to fulfill the Contractor’s obligations. The Work may constitute the whole or a part of the Project.
P."Project" means the total construction of which the work performed under the contract documents may be the whole or a part.
Q."Joint Venture" means an association of two or more businesses to carry out a single business enterprise in which they may combine their property, capital efforts, skills, and/or knowledge.
III. ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY PLAN REQUIREMENTS
- Contractor agrees to establish and implement an innovative, comprehensive economic opportunity plan ("Plan") that incorporates at least the provisions outlined below and is otherwise acceptable to Northwestern. The Contractor’s Plan must be set forth on the Economic Opportunity Implementation Plan form (Form 100) and submitted along with its bid. Any bid submitted without a completed Form 100 will be incomplete and will not be considered.
B.Contractor agrees to set forth on Form 100 its expectations of the percentage of Eligible M/W/D/LBE firms it expects to use for any work contracted or subcontracted by it and materials or supplies purchased by it. Contractor agrees that it will use its best efforts to achieve the anticipated percentage of M/W/D/LBE participation set forth on the Form 100 submitted along with its bid document. Contractor shall likewise impose these expected percentages on all Subcontractors, Sub-subcontractors and Suppliers hired or retained by Contractor in performance of any portion of the Work for Northwestern.
C.Contractor agrees to provide to Northwestern a Letter of Intent to Perform as a Subcontractor, Supplier and/or Consultant (Form 200) from each M/W/D/LBE firm identified as a Contract participant on the Contractor’s Form 100. Forms 100 and 200 should be submitted together along with the Contractor’s bid.
D.Contractor acknowledges that Northwestern will permit joint ventures between majority and M/W/D/LBE Contractors, Subcontractors, Sub-subcontractors and Suppliers will evaluate each proposed joint venture on a case by case basis upon its merits.
E.Contractor shall not discriminate against employee or applicants for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin or ancestry, disability or veteran status. Contractor shall take action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin or ancestry, disability or veteran status. Such action shall include, but not be limited to, the following: employment, job classification, upgrading, promotion, demotion or transfer, recruitment advertising, layoff or termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation and selection for and quality of training, including apprenticeship.
F.Contractor agrees that, in all solicitations or advertisements for employees placed by or on behalf of the Contractor, it will state that all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin or ancestry, disability or veteran status.
G.Contractor agrees to demonstrate that he or she has taken positive steps to perform outreach to M/W/D/LBE firms and agrees to request the assistance of appropriate public or private agencies to identify certified, pending and certifiable M/W/D/LBE firms for contracts, subcontracts and purchases.
H.Contractor agrees to provide such reports and information as may be required by the Illinois Department of Human Rights or to any other administrative or governmental entity involved in the Project.
IV.ADMINISTRATION AND MONITORING
A.Contractor's obligation under this Plan is to make good faith efforts to comply with all provisions and to meet all requirements set forth herein or otherwise agreed upon. Contractor agrees that the Plan shall be administered in the following manner:
1.Contractor agrees that these Economic Opportunity Plan Agreement provisions are to be inserted in each contract for any of the Work subcontracted by the Contractor to others, and that the Contractor will be responsible for enforcing or causing Subcontractors, Sub-subcontractors and Suppliers to enforce such provisions. The Contractor will report such enforcement efforts to Northwestern as often as may be required by Northwestern.
2.During the contract period, Contractor will maintain and make available to Northwestern documentation regarding M/W/D/LBE participation and utilization. To verify that the participation is genuine and legitimate, a careful and comprehensive award, reporting and verification procedure will be used on this Project. Failure to submit any required report in a timely manner will result in withholding of payment to the Contractor.
- The Contractor must submit the Contractor’s Monthly Report (Form 300) each month as follows:
a.The Report must be prepared and submitted to Facilities Management with the Contractor’s monthly pay request. For Projects on which no monthly pay request is submitted, the Contractor’s Monthly Report must be submitted to Facilities Management no later that the 15th of each month.
- For contracts where only one invoice will be submitted for payment, the Report and invoice must be submitted to Facilities Management no later than the 15th of the month.
c.The Report must reflect the contracting and subcontracting activity through the end of the previous month.
B.It is mutually understood that, consistent with the obligation to exercise good faith, the Contractor shall be solely responsible for judging the qualifications of the M/W/D/LBE Contractor, Subcontractors, Sub-subcontractors and Suppliers utilized to perform the work.
C.In determining whether the Contractor has met its stated expectation level of M/W/D/LBE firms used on the Project as set forth on the Contractor’s Form 100, the Contractor may only count contract awards and purchases to Eligible M/W/D/LBE firms as follows:
a.To be eligible for credit, a firm must be currently certified by any one of the following agencies or organizations:
1.City of Chicago
2.Chicago Regional Purchasing Council
3.Nationwide affiliates of the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC)
4.State of Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)
5.Small Business Administration (SBA - 8a Program)
6.Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC)
Other recognized certifications will be considered upon request.
b.Credit for Contractors for M/W/D/LBE participation will be given as follows:
1.100% of the dollar value of a contract with an eligible M/W/D/LBE firm will be counted in evaluating the achievement of the Contractor’s expectation.
2.For contracts involving a joint venture, the Contractor may count toward its M/W/D/LBE expectation the portion of the total dollar value of the contract with the joint venturer equal to the percentage of the M/W/D/LBE ownership and control of the venturer.
3.Credit for M/W/D/LBE participation will only be given for one category per Subcontractor or Supplier. For example, the dollar value of a contract with a firm owned and controlled by minority women will be counted either toward the expectation as either MBE or WBE participation, but not both.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
POLICY STATEMENT ON ENHANCED ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
NorthwesternUniversity is committed to the goal of enhancing economic opportunities for minorities and women.
The University's dedication to quality undergraduate education, professional training and scholarly research is reliant upon the philosophy of prudent business principles, combined with enhanced opportunities. Its day-to-day challenge is to provide educational services with care and attention to customer service that is unparalleled in the higher education environment. Similar high standards will also be brought into action in efforts related to enhanced economic opportunity and participation by minority/women/disadvantaged/locally owned business enterprises (M/W/D/LBE). Economic opportunity should be an essential element in any development process, and NorthwesternUniversity will establish and implement a rigorous, progressive, and innovative economic opportunity program that serves appropriate sectors of the community.
It is the policy of NorthwesternUniversity not to discriminate against any person because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, disability, or veteran status and to take action to ensure that applicants and employees are treated fairly. The University will comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, orders, and rulings governing equal employment opportunity.
The University has adopted a policy of enhanced economic opportunity with respect to its own contracting and purchasing contractors, subcontractors, and vendors and will seek to assure that all of its contractors, subcontractors, and vendors abide by the spirit and intent of this policy statement. The inclusion of this policy statement is required in all major contracts and subcontracts. All major contractors and vendors will be required to submit a plan for enhanced economic opportunity for M/W/D/LBEs. The University is committed to a comprehensive program of M/W/D/LBE business development- The University wants to ensure that maximum opportunities exist for such firms.
Finally, recognizing that successful economic opportunity programs are important to the continued growth and vitality of the University and of society as a whole, NorthwesternUniversity will continue to ensure that business opportunities are provided and that all job applicants are employed and treated in a nondiscriminatory manner.
Morton Shapiro
President
Economic Opportunity Plan Requirement
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