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Friday, March 30, 2007

Is City Government Racist?

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posted by Bob at Friday, March 30, 2007

4 Comments:

Blogger Bob said...

Owners say St. Paul shut out their firms
Two studies aim to examine the city's record of working with minority contractors, some of whom argue that the city has too long passed them by.
By Myron P. Medcalf, Star Tribune
Last update: March 29, 2007 – 11:29 PM

Howell Shaw said he was shocked when St. Paul officials recently notified him that his firm, Shaw-Lundquist Associates Inc., had lost a bid to manage a construction project at the city's Jimmy Lee Recreation Center. And Logan Coombs, who owns a small graphic design business in Minneapolis, said he has never had the opportunity to work with St. Paul, although he has tried over the past 15 months.
"I'm not asking for a handout, just an opportunity to bid," Coombs said Thursday.

They were among the business owners who believe the city has discriminated against them and who testified about their experiences Tuesday and Thursday at public hearings, as part of a $250,000 disparity study, a marketplace analysis.

Separately, the city has also worked with a group of community members on the Equal Access Working Group to push ahead with an independent compliance audit of the city's administration of its vendor outreach program, which was created after two 1995 studies revealed that the city had discriminated against minority contractors.

The city hopes to sign a contract for the audit soon with private auditor James Hall Jr. of Milwaukee.

But questions remain about the scope of the audit and how it relates to the disparity study.

The ultimate objective of both studies, the city says, is to correct patterns and practices, if they exist, that put minority, small, female and disabled business owners at a disadvantage when they seek city contracts.

Shaw said that his firm had the lowest bid to work on the Jimmy Lee project, but that another firm the city has hired for similar jobs got the contract.

The city has long been accused by some minority business owners of discrimination in the way contracts are awarded; several lawsuits on the matter are pending.

Mike Thomas, president of Cornerstone Mortgage Services, is one of those suing the city. He said recent developments make it appear that city officials have tried to alter the outcome of the audit.

Thomas, who said the city took a pass on his services during former Mayor Randy Kelly's initiative to create thousands of housing units in the city, said the audit discussion hasn't included enough community members who would be most affected by its outcome. He also said the city has altered provisions in the audit because officials don't want to look back.

City officials have denied that claim and said that both an auditor and the company conducting the disparity study will have access to all of the city's contract records that are available.

"They're trying to steer the outcome of this audit," Thomas said. "These two [disparity study and audit] should not be together at all."

The most recent audit proposal request sent to Hall states that "designated" contracts should be reviewed and that Hall is expected to focus on vendor contracts not covered within the disparity study.

Hall also is asked to work with MGT of America, the company conducting the disparity study.

Thomas said that proposed language may be an effort to restrict the scope of Hall's audit and force him to work with MGT.

But Trudy Moloney, director of City Council operations, said the city just doesn't want to duplicate the disparity study. She said that Hall won't be required to work with MGT but that a relationship with the Florida firm might help Hall since MGT is working with similar data. She also said Hall is free to stress any concerns about the city's expectations or the ongoing disparity study during contract negotiations.

"We're relying on him to tell us" his concerns, she said.

Myron P. Medcalf • 651-298-1546 • mmedcalf@startribune.com

11:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How could they be anything but racist? The Fire Department sues them all the time over racial issues, the city fired that McDonald guy just because he brought to thier attention that they were not complying with their own minority contractor policies, the landlords are suing them because of their hosuing code activities against the minorities, the cops are beating up the elderly minorities, the city refused to do a previous study on this nimority contractor issue because they feared it would give evidence to yet another lawsuit that was against them and now it appears they are trying to rig the outcome of this study just like they did with adhoc committee they had for the code enforcement issues. With so many different issues all pointing to the same thing, there's no doubt in my mind that they are racist.

11:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i was stopped by police for violating City ordinance "Walking While Black".

i was one of four minorities who attended the Bruce Vento Elementary neighborhood meeting with Bob to talk about our feelings of being harassed by police because of the color of our skin.

i work for Buddy Johnson Bobs son.
We shoveling snow and mow grass. If you need someone for a spring clean up or to mow grass call Buddy at 698-1965. The more work we get the more money I have and Buddy can hire more people.

doe

1:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

St. Paul requires that all major contracts get approval from the Human Rights Department. If there are problems with how contracts are rewarded, doesn't the Human Rights Director bear some of the responsibility?

2:39 PM  

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