Auditors have identified significant racial and gender disparities in the way King County awards contracts to private firms.
King County disproportionately contracted with white-owned small businesses while under-contracting with Black-owned and Latinx/Hispanic-owned small businesses.
After state law banned race-based preferential treatment in contracting in 1998, the county started its Small Contractor and Supplier program, a race-neutral initiative focused on small businesses.
As of August 2020, there are more than 1,800 firms that meet the qualifications of a small contractor or supplier. The qualifications are that the owner’s net worth must not exceed $1.32 million and that the business income and staff size must not exceed 50% of federal
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