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Saturday, May 26, 2007

Saint Paul/ Audit Of City Contracting Has Begun.

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posted by Bob at Saturday, May 26, 2007

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Blogger Bob said...

St. Paul / Audit of city's contracting has begun
Critics say minorities don't get fair share
BY JASON HOPPIN
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 05/25/2007 11:44:42 PM CDT


A long-sought independent audit of St. Paul's minority contracting practices is finally under way.

James Hall, a Milwaukee-based lawyer whose team has performed similar studies for corporations and local and federal governments, is heading the $80,000 audit.

The development ends years of wrangling between City Hall and the Equal Access Working Group, a coalition of advocacy groups that has charged that St. Paul does not fairly distribute its public contracting and development dollars to businesses owned by women, minorities and the disabled.

The team began sifting through city documents May 9 and will announce its findings within the next four months.

"This is about moving forward by looking at the past, so that we are not destined to repeat it," said City Council President Kathy Lantry, who has long supported the effort and added that the city cannot analyze its own contracting practices objectively.

Associates Bill Lynch and Stephanie Salawdeh will join Hall. The team has already begun examining original documents from a joint city and county contracting office and will conduct interviews before issuing a report.

"We've met with a number of department heads and other city staff (including Mayor Chris Coleman), so our work here has already started," Hall said. "All of those meetings have been constructive in our view."

The team will examine whether the city is in compliance with a number of laws, mainly Chapter 84, the city's vendor outreach
program, and Chapter 183, the city's human rights and anti-discrimination laws.
The vendor outreach program was instituted in the 1990s after two reports found evidence of discrimination in the city's contracting practices. But critics maintain the city still fails to meet the goals outlined in the program, which tracks the use of certified disadvantaged businesses.

Jason Hoppin can be reached at jhoppin@pioneerpress.com or 651-292-1892

11:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"This is about moving forward by looking at the past, so that we are not destined to repeat it," said City Council President Kathy Lantry"

LOL....I wonder if she realizes how rediculously stupid and insecure she appears to most people outside of Government?

12:16 PM  

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