(3) Kentucky thru Mississippi City Contractor Reverse Discrimination and Set-Asides.

By State and City:

Maryland (Baltimore): Higher Bidder Given Minority Preference! (05/06/99)
ANNAPOLIS - "The Board of Public Works turned aside a challenge from one bidder yesterday and agreed to spend an extra $1 million to give the second-lowest bidder a contract to build a juvenile justice center in Baltimore.

"The contract was awarded to Poole & Kent Co. of Baltimore even though W.M. Schlosser Co. Inc. of Prince George's County submitted a bid that was about $1 million lower.

"Andrew Schlosser, president of the company that submitted the low bid told the [Board of Public Works] he was mystified that the state is spending an extra $1 million when his company's bid exceeded all the specifications and it has completed several major projects for the state with no problems.

"He said his company will file an appeal with the state's Board of Contract Appeals seeking to overturn the decision to award the contract to Poole & Kent.

"The winning bid was supported by community activists from east Baltimore and the state's minority contractors, who said the 23.14 percent of the work that will be done by minority contractors under Poole & Kent's bid is the largest in state history for such a large project.

"Schlosser said his bid guaranteed that a little more than 20 percent of the work would go to minority contractors, but that the figure would actually be about 26 percent if his company got the contract." (Associated Press 05/06/99 by Tom Stuckey)
[link http://www.jrnl.com/news/99/May/jrn115060599.html ]

Related: MD Gov. Glendening in Hawaii to Promote Racial Quotas in the State Judiciary (05/0699)
Maryland's democratic Gov. Parris Glendening frequently trumpets his pandering to minority voting interests, and he did so in grand style last week in Honolulu (at taxpayer expense).

The Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, Robert M. Bell, is one of Glendening's race-based, minority appointees to the state judiciary and Judge Bell is thus significantly beholden to Glendening. Therefore, it is no surprise that it was Judge Bell who arranged for Glendening to give this self serving speech in Hawaii.

Since his election in 1994, Glendening boasted in his Honolulu speech that he has appointed 32 female judges and 24 minority (racially-correct, non-white) judges to the Maryland courts.

At no time during his Honolulu speech did Gov. Glendening mention or offer evidence that his female and minority judicial appointees were in any way more qualified than the white, male counterparts that might have been considered for these same judicial positions if they had only been the correct gender or ethnicity. (Based on the Washington Post 05/06/99, Montgomery Weekly Section, Page 1, by Daniel LeDuc and Jackie Spinner)

Maryland (Prince Georges County): 70 Non-White Firms Receive Gifts on Redskins Stadium (07/09/00)

Adversity.Net Special Report: Prince Georges County executive Wayne K. Curry was elected to this majority-minority county in 1994. He ran on a pro-black, anti-white platform, and he made good on his promise to award county contracts to persons of the "right color". This Washington Post expose reveals the corruption and racial favoritism PG executive Curry exercised in obtaining Redskins Stadium contracts for his black friends and major campaign contributors.
[link http://www.adversity.net/PrinceGeorgesCounty/Minority_Contracting_1.htm ]

Massachusetts (Boston): Boston Housing Authority Declares Shamrock Racist! (08/03/99 - no link)
"The Boston Housing Authority yesterday clarified its diversity policy after Mayor Thomas M. Menino raised questions about reports that the BHA equated one of the city's most familiar emblems, the shamrock, with hate symbols such as the swastika.

''There's no directive by the BHA to take down shamrocks, and the BHA is not equating shamrocks with other symbols that were discussed in the diversity training such as swastikas or Confederate flags,'' BHA director Sandra B. Henriquez wrote in a statement.

"Some residents in BHA housing developments, particularly those in South Boston and Charlestown, hang shamrock flags - a symbol of pride for Irish Americans - from their windows.

"Kelly said he was particularly concerned that the BHA was singling out ''the people of South Boston and Charlestown and if that is not the case, they should take some corrective action in their thinking and their policy.''

"The controversy erupted several weeks ago when South Boston Tribune columnist John Ciccone wrote that the BHA was asking residents in housing developments to take down shamrocks. The story appeared again in The Sunday Tribune, a Dublin newspaper.

"Yesterday, Kelly, state Representative Martin J. Walsh, a Boston Democrat, and community leaders denounced the reported BHA policy. ''I find it insulting, and I'm sure people of other cultures should also be insulted with that,'' Walsh said." (Boston Globe 08/03/99 by Kera Ritter)
[former link *http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/215/metro/BHA_tries_to_quiet_shamrock_firestorm+.shtml ]

Michigan (Detroit): Whites Excluded from $21.4 Million in Tiger Ballpark Construction
Detroit Tigers want their ballpark built by minorities, and they are NOT afraid to violate the Constitution to do it. So far, "whites" have been excluded from $21.4 million in ballpark construction contracts. (Detroit Free Press 10/5/98)

Minnesota (Minneapolis): [White, Male-owned] Shoeshine company forced out of airport (10/14/99 - dead link)
"Royal Zeno's shoeshine company will soon be the only one left in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, after a regional commission forced out another company that last year threatened to replace Zeno's stand.

"Leather Care, the Hebron, Ky., company that a federal agency concluded last week was not entirely owned or controlled by women, was kicked out of the airport by the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which had allowed the company to enter the airport because it initially was determined to be female-owned.

"The company must remove its four stands by Nov. 30. Chief Executive Officer Judith Edwards traveled to Minneapolis Wednesday to argue her case before a commission panel.

"Last December, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a tentative finding that Leather Care was co-owned by Kent Edwards, husband of Judith Edwards." (Associated Press, via Duluth News 10/14/99)
[former link *http://www.duluthnews.com/today/dnt/local/shoe.htm ]

Minnesota (Minneapolis): New Minority Set-asides Start Monday (02/06/99)
"Minority business owners looking for loans will get some added help when the Minnesota District Office of the Small Business Administration and the Metropolitan Economic Development Association begin a new partnership Monday.

"The program, to begin at 8 a.m. at MEDA's office at 250 2nd Ave. S., Minneapolis, will allow minority small-business owners to pre-qualify for SBA-guaranteed loans before approaching a bank. MEDA is a Minneapolis-based association of business executives and financial experts who counsel business owners and work to improve the profitability of minority-owned firms. It also has a loan program, issuing 31 loans to date.

"The SBA will pre-qualify loan guarantee requests for potential [minority] borrowers seeking up to $250,000 in credit. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 02/06/99, by Dee DePass)
[link http://www2.startribune.com/cgi-bin/stOnLine/article?thisStory=70713194 ]

Minnesota (Minneapolis): Dayton Hudson Corp. Submits to Quotas; Allowed to Bid on Contracts
"A reluctant Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission voted Monday to lift a 14-year debarment against Dayton Hudson Corp. after reviewing the company's new citywide affirmative action plan. By a 13-2 vote with three abstentions, the commission decided to allow Dayton Hudson to contract with the city in the effort to build a city-subsidized Target store on the 900 block of Nicollet Mall. Opponents of abolishing the debarment, which banned the corporation from doing business with the city, said they don't trust Dayton Hudson to implement the new affirmative action guidelines. Dayton Hudson has said it is proud of its diversity record, and federal filings indicate that minority employees account for one-third of its nationwide work force." (Minneapolis Start Tribune, 12-28-98, by Jennifer M. Fitzenberger)
[former link http://webserv1.startribune.com/cgi-bin/stOnLine/article?thisStory=65749663]

Mississippi (Jackson): Judge Says City's Minority Contracting Set Asides Are Unconstitutional
The city council voted 4 (blacks) vs. 3 (whites) to reject the low bid submitted by W.H. Scott Construction Co. The company sued because it seems the city didn't provide the statistical proof of racial discrimination that is required for a city to practice racial set asides. (Sun Herald Online 8/16/98)

End "City Set-Asides (3) Kentucky - Mississippi" Page