The Economic Development Committee convened on May 18, 2026, to review the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget for the Office of Business Opportunity (OBO). Presenters included Director Celynthia Hoard and Patsy Jackson. The proposed total budget is $6.2 million, reflecting a new mission focused on equal representation and advocacy for small businesses. Discussions covered budget reductions, program consolidation, new key performance indicators (KPIs), fee studies, and the pending federal judicial ruling affecting certification programs.
Okay, we are back. And thank you to the Office of Business Opportunity for joining us today. We have the Director Celynthia Hoard and also Patsy Jackson to present the proposed Office of Business Opportunity Fiscal Year 2027 budget. So you may begin. Good morning, good morning. Today I'll present to you the proposed FY 27 budget for the Office of Business Opportunity. According to the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Directory, Houston is home to approximately 319,000 small businesses, a little over that. And Google Maps reports that we have about 273,000 small business operators in Houston. Houston is growing as a growing metropolis with new business opportunities sparking every day. In accordance with feedback from the community and changes in the business climate, we've adopted a new mission, which states that the Office of Business Opportunity provides equal representation and advocacy for all small businesses by creating pathways to partnerships, education, and accelerated growth. In alignment with our new mission, I'll discuss a budget that is reflective of this change and with consolidated services and new KPIs. Next slide. Our budget presentation will provide insight to our strategic alignment to the mayor's priorities, our plans to eliminate gap, OBO expenditures, outcome based programs, and our revenues. Next slide. As you can see on this slide, the work of the Office of Business Opportunity Alliance with two of the mayor's priorities, primarily government that works as well as infrastructure. 90% of the work of OBO Alliance with government that works, and 10% of our work aligns with the priority infrastructure. As you can see in the first table, the majority of OBO's work supports interworkings of city government as we support small business contracting opportunities through the administration of certification and designation and our contract compliance team. The remaining 10% of our work supports building the infrastructure of small business through community capacity building, collaboration, and workforce development services. In an effort to close budgeting gaps, the department proceeded with a reduction of two vacant positions, totaling approximately 171,000, and over $300,000 of our non-personnel budget was also reduced. The elimination of this gap total an overall reduction of over 201,000. Next slide. Expenditure by fund. The expenditures for OBO are general and personnel related. From FY 26 to FY27, there's 11% increase in the general fund due to the addition of staff transfer from the finance department and for staff health insurance pension and meet and confer agreement. And FY26 FY27 Special Revenue Fund shows an increase in expenditures of 20%, which is due to city departments forecast and increase in contractual agreements, which will increase the pay or play payments. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. OBO's total proposed budget is $6.2 million with fund 1000 and fund 2424 combined. As indicated in the personnel breakdown graph, the majority of OBO's personnel spending, which is 85%, is accounted for in the general fund and 33% in the special revenue fund. Only 16% of the general fund accounts for non-personnel spending. Non-personnel spending in a special fund is 67%, which is interfund transfer to support the police and fire department, which will be detailed later in the slide. Next slide, please. Expenditure by program. As OBO tracked their expenditures by program, you will also see this in this slide as well. There's a 100% decrease in business support and development department services and workforce development services in FY27 budget as those programs have been consolidated into the external fairs and contract compliance divisions where there are positive variances of 522,000 and 633,000 respectively. Additionally, contract compliance and external fails have increased expenditures due to filling vacancies. This adjustment was made to cut duplication and to more accurately reflect the work and structure of the department. There's also an increase in expenditures and administration services due to increases in personnel costs such as health, insurance, and pension. The increase in certification and designations is attributed to personnel shifts and to the division to support certification processing. Next slide, please. Now we'll take a look and a dive into the specific budgets and the KPIs for each of our OBO divisions. Administrative services is comprised of our executive team and aligns with the mayor's priority of government that works. We have 5.6 FTEs. The program sets and implements the strategic direction policy and long-term girls goals of the department, manages the budget personnel matters analytics, our Title VI compliance, and directly engages with the mayor's office and city council. The proposed budget for FY27 is 1.5 million for that division. And KPIs include new participation goals for purchasing categories, our Title VI requirements, and our budget actualizations. There's actually one error on this slide FY 27 targets for goods and for services. Those actually are targeted at 15% for good, and it should be 6019% for services, and we'll make that change in the SharePoint. We didn't meet or exceed our targets in FY26. Next slide.