Denver City Council on Monday night approved a five-year renewal of the Hancock administration’s program to level the playing field for local minority, women-owned businesses.  

The program, conducted by the Denver Economic Development & Opportunity Division of Small Business Opportunity (DSBO), is intended to prevent discrimination, ensure equity and improve opportunities on public contracts.

“This program embodies our city’s long-term commitment to using our public investment to support a more equitable and just marketplace for all companies,” Mayor Michael Hancock said in a statement. “Creating more opportunities for more businesses to create more jobs and better support their workers, especially now with the impacts of COVID-19, is an important part of building resiliency into our economy and helping all companies grow and thrive.”

As part of the program, the city monitors contract activities throughout business projects to ensure compliance.

Amendments to the ordinance, passed by the council, allow for more business categories to be included, meaning more opportunities are available for minority and women-owned businesses.

“This reauthorization represents years of work across city agencies to strengthen the program, gather and analyze disparity data in our marketplace and bolster our citywide systems to support, certify, train, and engage our disadvantaged firms so that they can compete and thrive,” DSBO spokesperson Adrina Gibson said in a statement.

The city will seek public comment on the ordinance’s rules and regulations this spring. The reauthorization goes into effect May 2.