"Arizona Steps Up" Introduced

Gov. Janet Napolitano announced the release of Arizona Steps Up: A Statewide Partnership for Equity in Procurement, an online directory of certified women- & minority-owned small business venders. This database is in response to Executive Order 2004-29, Contracting with Small Women-Owned & Minority-Owned Businesses.

Arizona Steps Up is an effort of the Governor’s Equity in State Contracting Initiative, a partnership of the Governor’s Office, the Az. Dept. of Transportation & the cities of Phoenix & Tucson. The initiative is intended to increase State use of minority- & women-owned small business vendors.

The directory's an electronic reference source for public & state procurement & purchasing personnel to locate these enterprises that seek to do businesses with the State. Each business included in the directory has been certified as small, minority- or women- owned with the Az. Dept. of Transportation & the City of Phoenix or the City of Tucson.

Executive Order 2004-29, signed Dec. 17th, 2004, directs that Executive Branch agencies shall promote the use of women- or minority-owned small business enterprising as subcontractors & suppliers. Arizona Steps Up provides easy access to a wide range of certified small, minority- & women-owned businesses to meet the State’s procurement needs. Vendors can be contacted electronically through the database search results.

The Arizona Steps Up database is available at arizonastepsup.com & can be used by the general public in addition to State personnel.