Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and the city’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion have hired Rutgers Business School Public Private Community Partnerships to work with New Jersey City University in conducting a comprehensive disparity study to assess the utilization of minority, woman, veteran, and LGBT-owned businesses hired for the City.

The study will help refine ordinances, regulations, policies and purchasing processes to aggressively cultivate, build, and competitively bid and award contracts with these businesses.

“This study will be valuable to Jersey City by providing a full analysis of how the city has utilized minority, women, veteran, LGBT-owned and small businesses,” Fulop said in a statement. “The study is essential to legally protect ordinances that propose to correct any found disparity.”

A disparity study improves contracting policies to minority-owned, women‐owned, and disadvantaged business enterprises.

The 11-month-long study will provide recommendations for improvement and potential program measures as part of its implementation of the city’s Supplier Diversity Program. The study will also include an availability analysis of businesses in Jersey City that are ready and willing to perform on city contracts.

“The Rutgers Business School’s PPCP program was established to demonstrate the potential of enhancing opportunities for sustainable strategic on-off campus partnerships for local income enhancement, sustainable livelihoods and participatory development across all sectors and topics,” Kevin Lyons, associate professor at Rutgers Business School in the Supply Chain Management Department and director of public private community partnerships, said in a statement.