The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) celebrated a prestigious honor, which was bestowed by San Francisco's Golden Gate Business Association and the Silicon Valley Rainbow Chamber of Commerce, as the first transportation agency in the world to include LGBTQ-owned businesses in a procurement program.
Disadvantaged, small and minority businesses have helped shape this valley, delivering a network that has amounted to tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure improvements. In August 2014, VTA's Board of Directors expanded its procurement program to include women-owned businesses, and in May this year, further expanded the program to include Disabled Veterans and LGBTQ business enterprises, creating equal access to contracting opportunities.
"This inclusion does not only promote diversity but it encourages innovation, creates healthy competition, generates local jobs and promotes economic growth for the greater San Francisco Bay Area," General Manager Fernandez told the business associations in her acceptance speech. "As the transportation backbone that serves our diverse community, our procurement programs must look like the public we serve."
