This is a quick hack job, but its extremely timely with meetings tonight and it was so appalling, it needed to be out there. Would like to spend more time on it, but I have an hour or less.
Here is the full audio, about 45 minutes.
THE ISSUE
The city did a study on disparities between businesses that get contracts from the city in minority (MBE) and women (WBE) owned businesses. The disparities actually don’t end up being the issue at hand, the issue is that they don’t exist. Here’s a few quotes from the consultants.
17:37
“When we adjust for size of project you work on, and a number of other factors, so it is not just a head count of minority businesses compared to other businesses, controlling for what percentage of the dollars you would expect the existing businesses to get, given the types of work they do, the fields they are in, whether they work as a primary or a sub, and the size of projects they work on, your availability is almost zero. I’ve never seen a number, and I’ve worked throughout the country on this, from Massachusetts to California, to Washington State, I’ve never seen a number, even in Minnesota, that was anywhere near the level of low availability of minority owned firms that we found in this study.”
20:18
“What I found, almost across the board, from business owners of color, was that the experience that they were having on the jobs site was playing a significant role in their difficulty in terms of being able to stay in business. In one case the gentleman was an iron worker, his company did the iron work for a project and they had a crane to take large pieces of iron to the middle of the bridge where they had to work, and the person in charge of the work site said no, you can carry your iron across the bridge, so instead of using the machine and lifting it and drop it there, instead he had to have his people spend a significant amount of time and obviously energy, putting, I think, he said 100 or 200 pounds of iron on their shoulder and walking across the bridge, just because the person didn’t want to allow him to use the same equipment that everyone else on the site was using when they needed it. Similarly, each of these people talked about the fact that they were being charged much higher prices for materials and equipment than other people were. Two biggest examples the one person was paying $1500 more a month for one piece of equipment on a project than other people were and the only way he found out, and this was the case in other cases as well, is they did a joint bid with a white contractor and that allowed the white contractor to see their numbers and that the numbers the person of color was using were twice as high so they asked why they were so high and that they would never get the bid, but that is just the price that they get charged, they backtracked from there, talked to the provider and find out that they are being charged double.”
28:14
“I was sitting there thinking, as the person is still talking, that we need to do something about this, if someone is getting charged twice as much, while there are some things you can adjust for, a company that has a long standing history with them, but twice as much is never reasonable, that is never a fair difference in pricing. That has to be based on something else. And even beyond just the pricing, the people that I talked to all felt as tho if it was not a project by the university or some other entity where there was a an external incentive or goal to hire minority contractors, there was no interest in them, and not only was there no interest in them, they talked about bid rigging, they talked about other contractors know what number they need to beat so they can get the bid and that information never gets shared with them.” He says these are things that are inappropriate in the bidding process, but also inappapropriate if they are used to keep some people out of the process.
Mark Clear says it sounds like you are describing another place and time than Madison Wi.
The consultant says “Study after study in different disciplines and different areas keeps telling us something else, that there is a significant problem here that needs to be looked at, not from the lens of what we want Madison to be, or what we through Madison was, but looking realistically at what Madison is.” What will happen eventually if people keep coming here and find no opportunity here. They can’t even get laboring jobs.
The third consultant says she found a lot of bait and switch where a company is rolled out but the work gets given to someone else. (31:00)
RESOURCES TO LEARN MORE
Here is the study, here is the powerpoint
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Their polite conclusions are:
– The SBE (small business enterprise) program has encouraged MBE and WBE participation in City Public Works contracts.
– However, the SBE Program alone does not create a level playing field for local minority- and women-owned construction firms
– There are barriers in the local industry that an SBE contracting goals program does not address
– – These barriers appear to be widely known in the industry; 40+ local organizations provide different types of assistance.
– – City might take a larger role in helping develop minority- and women-owned firms
– – Assistance might include support for minorities and women entering and receiving training in construction trades.
Potential actions
1. Further improving the SBE contract goals program;
2. Further building an SBE prime contracting part of the Program;
3. Creating a business development component to the SBE Program, including mentorship and a City SBE coach;
4. Minimizing barriers in public works prequalification;
5. Expanding communication of City bid opportunities;
6. Improving prime contractor payment of subcontractors and relaxing retainage policies;
7. Supporting local technical assistance, bonding and financing programs, and creating new programs when necessary; and
8. Supporting local efforts to encourage minorities and women to enter, receive training and obtain jobs in the construction industry.
GIVE INPUT
There are two meetings coming up where they can take public input, and they are also taking written comments. The meeting notices did not come out until yesterday.
The City of Madison has invited the Affirmative Action Commission, Board of Public Works, Common Council, Equal Opportunities Commission, business owners and managers, trade associations, and other interested members of the community, to talk about their experiences and suggestions concerning the Draft Public Works Contracting Disparity Study.
Tonight at 6:00
6:00 PM PUBLIC MEETING ON THE DRAFT PUBLIC WORKS CONTRACTING DISPARITY STUDY NOTICE OF POSSIBLE QUORUM ROOM 260 MMB
Tomorrow at 9 am
9:00 AM PUBLIC MEETING ON THE DRAFT PUBLIC WORKS CONTRACTING DISPARITY STUDY NOTICE OF POSSIBLE QUORUM ROOM 260 MMB
Comments may be submitted for the public record in writing or verbally at the meeting. In addition to comments received at the meeting, written or email comments will be accepted through Thursday, March 16, 2015. Email comments can be sent to
contractingdisparitystudy@cityofmadison.com. Written comments can also be mailed to:
City of Madison Department of Civil Rights
210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Room 523
Madison, WI 53703
For more information contact: Norman Davis, Dept of Civil Rights, 608-267-8759
