(a) There is hereby established within the department the Office of Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Services. The duties of the office shall include:

(1) Compiling and maintaining a comprehensive bidders list of qualified small businesses and disabled veteran business enterprises, and noting which small businesses also qualify as microbusinesses.

Terms Used In California Government Code 14839

  • Department: means the Department of General Services. See California Government Code 14837
  • Disabled veteran business enterprise: means an enterprise that has been certified as meeting the qualifications established by paragraph (7) of subdivision (b) of §. See California Government Code 14837
  • Microbusiness: is a small business which, together with affiliates, has average annual gross receipts of two million five hundred thousand dollars ($2,500,000) or less over the previous three years, or is a manufacturer, as defined in subdivision (c), with 25 or fewer employees. See California Government Code 14837
  • Person: includes any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, limited liability company, business trust, corporation, or company. See California Government Code 17
  • Small business: means an independently owned and operated business that is not dominant in its field of operation, the principal office of which is located in California, the officers of which are domiciled in California, and which, together with affiliates, has 100 or fewer employees, and average annual gross receipts of ten million dollars ($10,000,000) or less over the previous three years, or is a manufacturer, as defined in subdivision (c), with 100 or fewer employees. See California Government Code 14837
  • State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Government Code 18
  • Subdivision: means a subdivision of the section in which the term occurs unless some other section is expressly mentioned. See California Government Code 10

(2) Coordinating with the Federal Small Business Administration, the Minority Business Development Agency, the California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program Advocate, appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs pursuant to § 999.11 of the Military and Veterans Code, and the Small Business Advocate, appointed by the Governor pursuant to Section 12098.3.

(3) Providing technical and managerial aids to small businesses, microbusinesses, and disabled veteran business enterprises, by conducting workshops on matters in connection with government procurement and contracting.

(4) Assisting small businesses, microbusinesses, and disabled veteran business enterprises, in complying with the procedures for bidding on state contracts.

(5) Working with appropriate state, federal, local, and private organizations and business enterprises in disseminating information on bidding procedures and opportunities available to small businesses, microbusinesses, and disabled veteran business enterprises.

(6) Making recommendations to the department and other state agencies for simplification of specifications and terms in order to increase the opportunities for small business, microbusiness, minority-owned business, women-owned business, LGBTQ-owned business, and disabled veteran business enterprise participation.

(7) Developing, by regulation, other programs and practices that are reasonably necessary to aid and protect the interest of small businesses, microbusinesses, and disabled veteran business enterprises in contracting with the state, including, but not limited to, those specified in Article 6 (commencing with Section 999) of Chapter 6 of Division 4 of the Military and Veterans Code.

(8) Making efforts to develop, in cooperation with associations representing counties, cities, and special districts, a core statewide small business certification application that may be adopted by all participating entities, with any supplemental provisions to be added as necessary by the respective entities.

(9) Marketing the benefits and availability of state small business certification to businesses that currently hold a federal certification as a disadvantaged business enterprise.

(10) Making available the option for an applicant or certified firm to voluntarily identify that the business is at least 51 percent owned by, and whose management and daily operations are controlled by, one or more individuals who identify as any of the following:

(A) Black (a person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa); Hispanic (a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish or Portuguese culture or origin regardless of race); Native American (an American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, or Native Hawaiian); Pacific-Asian (a person whose origins are from Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Samoa, Guam, or the United States Trust Territories of the Pacific including North Marianas); Asian-Indian (a person whose origins are from India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh).

(B) A woman.

(C) LGBTQ.

(b) Notwithstanding any other law, including Title 1.8 (commencing with Section 1798) of Part 4 of Division 3 of the Civil Code, the department may publicly display the information specified in paragraph (10) of subdivision (a) within the certification profile of the firm using the state’s certification system.

(c) The information furnished by each contractor requesting a small business or microbusiness preference shall be under penalty of perjury.

(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 730, Sec. 7. (AB 2019) Effective January 1, 2023.)

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