Chattanooga Mayor Andy BerkeChattanooga Mayor Andy Berke is setting up a task force to boost minority businesses in the city, the mayor's office announced Monday.
Berke signed an executive order Monday to establish a community coalition that he said will identify the challenges faced by minority business and propose solutions.
The mayor's office said Berke met two weeks ago with 40 business owners at an African-American Business Owners Breakfast hosted by the Mayor's Office of Multicultural Affairs.
"There is no doubt that the city and the community can do more to help strengthen and grow our minority-owned businesses," Berke said.
The Berke administration said it has made increasing the number of contracts awarded to minority-owned businesses a priority. The administration said it has raised the number of purchases orders and contracts awarded to minority-owned businesses from between 1 and 2 percent, the level when Berke took office, to a current level of 13.5 percent.
But that includes businesses owned by women and veterans as well as minorities.
The mayor's office said Berke will name the members of the task force in the next week, with the group's initial meeting to take place before the end of March. They will have one year after their first meeting to make recommendations to the mayor's office.