(a) Your objective in setting a goal is to estimate the percentage of the base calculated under §§ 23.47-23.49 that would be performed by ACDBEs in the absence of discrimination and its effects.

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(1) This percentage is the estimated ACDBE participation that would occur if there were a “level playing field” for firms to work as concessionaires for your airport.

(2) In conducting this goal setting process, you are determining the extent, if any, to which the firms in your market area have suffered discrimination or its effects in connection with concession opportunities or related business opportunities.

(3) You must complete the goal-setting process separately for each of the two overall goals identified in § 23.41 of this part.

(b)(1) Each overall concessions goal must be based on demonstrable evidence of the availability of ready, willing and able ACDBEs relative to all businesses ready, willing and able to participate in your ACDBE program (hereafter, the “relative availability of ACDBEs”).

(2) You cannot simply rely on the 10 percent national aspirational goal, your previous overall goal, or past ACDBE participation rates in your program without reference to the relative availability of ACDBEs in your market.

(3) Your market area is defined by the geographical area in which the substantial majority of firms which seek to do concessions business with the airport are located and the geographical area in which the firms which receive the substantial majority of concessions-related revenues are located. Your market area may be different for different types of concessions.

(c) Step 1. You must begin your goal setting process by determining a base figure for the relative availability of ACDBEs. The following are examples of approaches that you may take toward determining a base figure. These examples are provided as a starting point for your goal setting process. Any percentage figure derived from one of these examples should be considered a basis from which you begin when examining the evidence available to you. These examples are not intended as an exhaustive list. Other methods or combinations of methods to determine a base figure may be used, subject to approval by the FAA.

(1) Use DBE Directories and Census Bureau Data. Determine the number of ready, willing and able ACDBEs in your market area from your ACDBE directory. Using the Census Bureau’s County Business Pattern (CBP) data base, determine the number of all ready, willing and able businesses available in your market area that perform work in the same NAICS codes. (Information about the CBP data base may be obtained from the Census Bureau at their Web site, http://www.census.gov/epcd/cbp/view/cbpview.html.) Divide the number of ACDBEs by the number of all businesses to derive a base figure for the relative availability of ACDBEs in your market area.

(2) Use an Active Participants List. Determine the number of ACDBEs that have participated or attempted to participate in your airport concessions program in previous years. Determine the number of all businesses that have participated or attempted to participate in your airport concession program in previous years. Divide the number of ACDBEs who have participated or attempted to participate by the number for all businesses to derive a base figure for the relative availability of ACDBEs in your market area.

(3) Use data from a disparity study. Use a percentage figure derived from data in a valid, applicable disparity study.

(4) Use the goal of another recipient. If another airport or other DOT recipient in the same, or substantially similar, market has set an overall goal in compliance with this rule, you may use that goal as a base figure for your goal.

(5) Alternative methods. (i) You may use other methods to determine a base figure for your overall goal. Any methodology you choose must be based on demonstrable evidence of local market conditions and be designed to ultimately attain a goal that is rationally related to the relative availability of ACDBEs in your market area.

(ii) In the case of a car rental goal, where it appears that all or most of the goal is likely to be met through the purchases by car rental companies of vehicles or other goods or services from ACDBEs, one permissible alternative is to structure the goal entirely in terms of purchases of goods and services. In this case, you would calculate your car rental overall goal by dividing the estimated dollar value of such purchases from ACDBEs by the total estimated dollar value of all purchases to be made by car rental companies.

(d) Step 2. Once you have calculated a base figure, you must examine all relevant evidence reasonably available in your jurisdiction to determine what adjustment, if any, is needed to the base figure in order to arrive at your overall goal.

(1) There are many types of evidence that must be considered when adjusting the base figure. These include, but are not limited to:

(i) The current capacity of ACDBEs to perform work in your concessions program, as measured by the volume of work ACDBEs have performed in recent years; and

(ii) Evidence from disparity studies conducted anywhere within your jurisdiction, to the extent it is not already accounted for in your base figure.

(2) If your base figure is the goal of another recipient, you must adjust it for differences in your market area and your concessions program.

(3) If available, you must consider evidence from related fields that affect the opportunities for ACDBEs to form, grow and compete. These include, but are not limited to:

(i) Statistical disparities in the ability of ACDBEs to get the financing, bonding and insurance required to participate in your program;

(ii) Data on employment, self-employment, education, training and union apprenticeship programs, to the extent you can relate it to the opportunities for ACDBEs to perform in your program.

(4) If you attempt to make an adjustment to your base figure to account for the continuing effects of past discrimination, or the effects of an ongoing ACDBE program, the adjustment must be based on demonstrable evidence that is logically and directly related to the effect for which the adjustment is sought.

(5) Among the information you submit with your overall goal (see 23.45(e)), you must include description of the methodology you used to establish the goal, including your base figure and the evidence with which it was calculated, as well as the adjustments you made to the base figure and the evidence relied on for the adjustments. You should also include a summary listing of the relevant available evidence in your jurisdiction and an explanation of how you used that evidence to adjust your base figure. You must also include your projection of the portions of the overall goal you expect to meet through race-neutral and race-conscious measures, respectively (see §§ 26.51(c)).

(e) You are not required to obtain prior FAA concurrence with your overall goal (i.e., with the number itself). However, if the FAA’s review suggests that your overall goal has not been correctly calculated, or that your method for calculating goals is inadequate, the FAA may, after consulting with you, adjust your overall goal or require that you do so. The adjusted overall goal is binding on you.

(f) If you need additional time to collect data or take other steps to develop an approach to setting overall goals, you may request the approval of the FAA Administrator for an interim goal and/or goal-setting mechanism. Such a mechanism must:

(1) Reflect the relative availability of ACDBEs in your local market area to the maximum extent feasible given the data available to you; and

(2) Avoid imposing undue burdens on non-ACDBEs.