As of mid-2017, Rhode Island-based military-veteran business owners may have an easier time bidding for state government contracts, or so the General Assembly hopes.
A new law signed by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo last year requires 3 percent of all state contracts be awarded to businesses that are owned by military veterans. The bill, according to its text, aims to “assist” these types of businesses by “increasing opportunities for veteran-owned small businesses to participate in state agency contracts and subcontracts.”
The broader goal, said top sponsor Rep. Michael A. Morin, D-Woonsocket, is helping those who have served and protected the nation establish a business and bring in work.
“We don’t do enough for our veterans,” he said. This law “is something small we can do for them. We have to do so much more, but this is one way we can offer them something.”
However, the bill is getting a mixed reception among the military-veteran business owner community in Rhode Island. Many such business owners are unaware of its existence and some do not think 3 percent of all state contracts is enough of a step up for the community.
David DeQuattro, managing principal of RGB Architects in Providence and a U.S. Air Force veteran who was active from 1984 to 1986, was unaware of the law and said it might help keep more business in Rhode Island for veteran-owned firms such as RGB Architects to bid on.
In-state business, he said, goes “to competing companies from out of state and [other state governments] don’t give [Rhode Island companies] the same benefit of working in their state.”
For example, when RGB recently bid for an elementary school project in Massachusetts, they were asked if they had worked on “five schools in Massachusetts in the past five years” – a requirement for the project, said DeQuattro. Massachusetts “is a little bit more stringent on keeping work inside their state,” he said.
He hopes this law will bring in more business for him and is not unappreciative of the effort. “It’s a major step in the right direction,” but DeQuattro said he would prefer the law call for 10 percent of all state contracts go to military-veteran business owners.
Adam Batchelder, owner of Smoke & Squeal BBQ food truck based out of Pawtucket’s Hope Artiste Village and a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve veteran who served from 2002 to 2008, was similarly unaware of the law and thinks 3 percent “is not that much,” but knows any little bit helps.
While his is a one-man business, he said, “I know the state does have food trucks at their events sometimes [and] to be able to be chosen for that would be nice.”
Batchelder knows the contracts will lead to a “decent uptick in business” for military-veteran business owners in the contracting-, electric-, plumbing- and hard-services industries but remains intrigued to see how the General Assembly will build on this law moving forward and how that momentum will impact smaller firms such as his.
“This is better than not having your foot in the door,” he said.
‘This is better than not having your foot in the door.’
ADAM BATCHELDER, Smoke & Squeal BBQ owner
Rep. Robert D. Phillips, D-Woonsocket, another sponsor of the bill, called the 3 percent of state contracts “a good start,” especially given other measures in place to highlight women-, African-American- and minority-owned firms in Rhode Island.
He plans, after a year or two, to analyze the number of applicants, recipients and types of contracts bid on by military-veteran business owners.
Neither Morin nor Phillips could say how the figure of 3 percent was decided on or if that represents more or less than the number of state contracts previously awarded to military-veteran business owners in previous years.
Robert Mastin, owner and CEO of Middletown-based Custom Coffee House, said the law will not benefit his business as a small, craft coffee roaster, but added, “We love the idea. … It’s a step in the right direction, regardless of impact.”Mastin, a 1972 U.S. Naval Academy graduate who served in active duty until 1978, said unfortunately because he works with high-quality coffee, Custom House Coffee is priced out of large government contracts, which are often awarded to the companies with the lowest bid.
If the contracts were pitting “specialty grade versus specialty grade, we could compete,” he said, but that’s not the case.
Still wanting to find a way to support veterans, five years ago he created a brand of coffee called Veterans Coffee Roasters. For every pound of Veterans Coffee Roasters sold, $1 is donated to Operation Stand Down Rhode Island. The latest check he mailed to the Johnston-based nonprofit, he said, was $500 from a month’s worth of sales.
Upon hearing some military-veteran business owners in Rhode Island were hoping for more from the first iteration of the law, Morin said more can and will be done.
“I understand the veterans when they say this isn’t a lot. I agree, we have to get our foot in the door and build on it,” he said. “This is our first step.”