Chief Business Diversity Officer Michael Garner discussed how the city handles how it awards procurement dollars to businesses for minority and women-owned business enterprises.

He talked about how Gov. Hochul announced that the certification backlog has been eliminated for the first time in decades, even though there was no backlog in the city itself.

Garner also discussed how business owners should handle bureaucratic hurdles and try to cut through some red tape, as well as how to become more competitive and recognized.