Clear, effective communication is key to improving partnerships between Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) and prime contractors. As such, it is one of the best practices at the center of a multi-year partnership between APTA and the Council of Minority Transportation ­Officials (COMTO).

The partnership, which officially kicked off in summer 2012 with a series of conference calls and subsequent presentations at APTA meetings, focused on three critical issues: DBE sustainability, DBE certification, and prime/­subcontractor relationships.

The issue of prompt payment, which originally surfaced at the COMTO-APTA DBE Assembly at the APTA 2012 Annual Meeting in Seattle, was the focus of a panel discussion at the 2013 APTA Rail Conference in Philadelphia. This session specifically addressed several questions related to prompt payment: what agencies can do to ensure they are ­paying their business ­partners on time, what primes do to make sure that they pay their DBEs—and all subcontractors—on time, and what additional measures agencies can take to make sure that DBEs are getting paid.

The next step in the ongoing COMTO-APTA DBE conversation is an event at the COMTO Annual Meeting, July 13-17 in Jacksonville, FL, that will focus on mentor-protégé programs—how they work and why, and how they can benefit both companies and the public transit agencies that sponsor and encourage the programs.

A third presentation during the 2013 APTA Annual Meeting, Sept. 29-Oct. 2 in Chicago, will address the role of ­public transit agencies in successful DBE programs.

APTA and COMTO also have partnered on filing comments to DOT on DBE rulemaking issues.