Resident Profile: Rick Harris
Saint Paul, MN
Rick Harris moved to the Twin Cities eight years ago when his wife took a new job. Leaving behind his office furniture business in San Jose, he decided to start a new commercial interiors business in the Twin Cities area but found it hard to break into the private sector, which had composed 90 percent of his business in California. “After the handshake, the facilities person would say, ‘Welcome, but we’ve been working with our vendors for 20 years, and we don’t change our vendors very much, unless they’re hit by a bus,’” Harris recalls.
Today, 90 percent of his business is in the public sector thanks to Saint Paul’s efforts to promote racial equity in municipal contracting. “My biggest contract last year, a big flooring project of nearly $1 million, was with Saint Paul and one of the housing complexes they built,” Harris says. Saint Paul’s push to ensure equity in contracting is part of reforming practices within its Procurement and Contract Compliance and Business Development Divisions; that work was launched with the assistance of What Works Cities. Saint Paul’s results-driven contracting innovations, which have saved the City millions of dollars, were recently recognized with an award.
The above profile is an excerpt from “What Works Cities: How Local Governments Are Changing Lives,” a report showcasing accomplishments from cities participating in the What Works Cities initiative. Read more profiles and city success stories here.
