On August 13, 2026, in response to a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, the Kansas City Council repealed the city's Minority and Women Business Enterprise program and adopted an interim small business program in its place. A permanent replacement is being drafted, and the Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity (CREO) Department has published that draft for public comment.
The proposed program would certify firms based on size, local presence, and owner net worth rather than on race or gender. That is a structural change to how Kansas City awards contracts, and it affects any Chamber member that does business with the city or with a developer receiving city incentives.
The Proposed Program
The draft creates three certification tiers. Each requires the firm to be at least 51 percent owned, managed, and independently controlled by economically disadvantaged persons, with owner personal net worth at or below the federal DBE/SBE threshold.
Other provisions in the draft:
- A single citywide annual goal of 35 percent LBE/LSBE participation, replacing separate goals of 14.7 percent for minority-owned firms and 14.4 percent for women-owned firms.
- A local presence requirement: principal office in the KC metro, a majority of full-time employees working here, business transacted here within three years, and an office established at least six months before applying.
- For the EBE tier, CREO may limit a solicitation to certified EBEs or apply a bid preference of up to 5 percent, which is not available on construction contracts.
- EBE contracts include prepayment of up to 10 percent at notice to proceed, no retainage, and payment every two weeks.
- A three-year graduation period for firms that exceed their tier's size limits.
- Continued mentor-protégé and joint venture provisions, good faith effort waivers, and a three-member certification appeals board.
- Certification must be in place by the bid or proposal due date.
CREO is now seeking feedback on a proposed permanent business enterprise program. Learn more and fill out the survey here.
Impact on Chamber Members
LGBTQ+ owned firms have not been eligible under the current program and are not a category in the draft. Kansas City's M/WBE program has never included an LGBTQ+ owned business classification, and NGLCC LGBTBE certification has never counted toward a city contracting goal. That remains true under the proposed program.
The new eligibility criteria are ones many member firms can meet. Certification would turn on annual receipts, metro presence, and owner personal net worth. For LGBTQ+ owned businesses that were outside the M/WBE framework, this is the first city contracting program with an available path in.
Certification requires substantial documentation. The draft requires business and personal tax returns for every owner holding 5 percent or more, annual affidavits, proof of economic disadvantage and net worth, and consent to audit at any time. Firms new to city certification should plan for the workload.
Payment terms in the EBE tier are significant for small firms. Prepayment at notice to proceed, elimination of retainage, and biweekly payment change the working capital required to take on city work.
Members currently certified as M/WBE lose that designation. Firms that have built city and incentive-project revenue on M/WBE certification will need to qualify under the new tiers, and some will not.
The draft is not final. It contains unresolved provisions, including references carried over from the repealed M/WBE code, and the 35 percent citywide goal is not yet tied to a published availability analysis. With the next disparity study five years out, the program adopted from this draft is likely to govern city contracting for the remainder of the decade.
