Civil Rights Requirements for
Locally Administered Projects

When a local government administers a highway project that is even partially funded by programs overseen by VDOT, a local/state project agreement is required. A project-specific agreement must be prepared and must be reviewed and approved by the Attorney General’s Office before execution.

Summary of the Civil Rights requirements for federal and state funded locally administered projects

The federal USDOT- FHWA Civil Rights provisions must be processed by VDOT on all VDOT-funded projects administered by localities, except for those receiving money exclusively from the state transportation general fund. More information on Civil Rights requirements is available here.

If a locality utilizes more than $500,000 from federal sources in a year and administers any federally funded highway projects, it must comply with the auditing requirements of Office of Management and Budget Circular Number A-133 and must provide the results of any such audit to the Virginia Department of Transportation. You can look at Circular A-133 on the White House web site. If the project utilizes federal funds, the approval and review process it must follow is identical to a state administered federal funded project.

A list of DBE certified contractors is available from the Virginia Department of Minority Business Enterprises, via the following link:
http://www.dmbe.state.va.us/HPC DBE DIRECTORY.pdf

The Civil Rights Division has developed a checklist to assist those working on locally administered projects.

General Guidelines - Civil Rights Requirements for Federal-aid Projects Administered by Local Governments

1. RFP’s and IFB’s initiated by local governments are to be submitted to the VDOT District Civil Rights Office, through their VDOT Project Coordinator.

2. The Civil Rights Office will review the proposal, determine the DBE Goal, if the project is assigned a DBE goal it will be forward to the local agency to be included in the procurement document along with the Civil Rights contract provisions (DBE, non discrimination, OJT, Labor Compliance)

3. After advertisement, the Civil Rights Office will be contacted and provided with the two lowest responsive and responsible bidder/proposers for review for compliance and determine if the Goal has been met.

4. Once a determination is made, the Civil Rights Manager will advise of concurrence or non-concurrence to move forward with the award.

5. Once the contract is awarded, the local government will notify the Civil Rights Office of the project number, the Contractor, the names of the DBE firms along with items of work to be performed by the DBE(s), and other pertinent details in order to schedule any compliance reviews.

6. The local government shall send to the Civil Rights Office a monthly report specifying the dollars paid to all DBE firms during the reporting period.

Document Template for the solicitation package:

• Contract provisions to be inserted in solicitation packages with a DBE goal

  Contract provisions to be inserted in solicitation packages with no DBE goal

• Checklist for locally administered projects:
   

  • Checklist for construction projects

    Checklist for professional and non-professional contracts