Santa Clara County gives few contracts to minority-owned businesses, study shows

A study of Santa Clara County’s public contracts shows only a fraction goes to small, local businesses.

The county launched a vendor disparity study in 2022 to examine the number of minority-owned businesses that won public contracts between July 2016 and June 2021. The study’s final draft was released last week, finding that local, minority-owned businesses amount to only about 15 percent of the county’s total payments. It recommended the county start a small business enterprise program to give local, diverse businesses a more equitable opportunity to bid on public contracts.