Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / March 4, 2004, edition 1 / Page 6
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mm liiiiiiiiiiiiil 6A NEWS/tEPjie CboTlottt $ot Thursday, March 4, 2004 Minority vendors still lag on city, connty contracts Continued from page 1A hibited by state law to accepting the lowest quali fied bid.” Among contracts valued at more than $30,000, minori ty-backed firms received 2.7 percent, women 14.7. The results, presented Tuesday by MGT of America, don’t surprise Eddie Mobley, first vice president of the Metrolina Minority Contractors Association. Like the city, Mecklenburg’s contracting programs is viewed with suspicion by black contractors. “Now they have to put it in writing,” Mobley said. “We see you spending money when we helped get you money, but we don’t see money coming back to the black community.” Charlotte has struggled to boost minority participation with race-neutral contract ing programs. A City Council committee will meet March 18 to consider whether to install race-specific rules to its Small Business Opportunity program. Coimcil member Malcolm Graham said he met with Mecklenburg commissioners Darrel Williams and Parks Helms in 2001 to discuss combining contracting pro grams “because neither was worth a damn.” Since then, Charlotte launched a race- and gender-neutral small business program. A point of contention for contractors and politicians is the new uptovm arena, a $265 million project with a $165 million construction bill. Through January, con struction contracts for $55.9 million were awarded, with 15 percent going to small businesses. But minority- owned companies received just 3 percent of contracts while women-owned compa nies got 8 percent. Publicly-funded entities are “not even coming to us,” Mobley said. “They’re not even trying. They’re always saying ‘we’re going to help the women and the blacks. They shouldn’t even say women. It’s the black busi nesses that are getting zero.” Graham counters that Charlotte’s moving in the right direction. The SBO program, for instance, includes seminars to help business owners navigate the bid process and spells out a non-discrimination clause contractors are required to follow. “If you put little money in the program, you can’t expect to get 15 percent (par ticipation) in return,” Graham said. “You get what you pay for. No deposit, no return.” A race-specific program, which Charlotte scrapped in 2002 after a threatened law suit, should be brought back, Mobley said. ‘We know for a fact they’ve discriminated,” he said. ‘We need to know that it’s fair. Who’s monitoring it? Nobody’s monitoring it but the contractors. We need to wake up. We need to be pulling together.” Samuelson said the county, which called for the disparity study, doesn’t have a timetable for possible reme dies, but it’s important to try. “I’m not going to sit it on a shelf,” she said. “I think there’s something that should be done.” “Count on us for Quality At A Low Price” KEZIAH FUNITURE Luxurious M Leather Deep Seated Sofa Loveseat $679“ $699 oo Reg. $999- Rwanda guilty verdict Open Mon. - Sat. 9ani - 6pni Financing Available ^ 2914 Gihhon Rd. Charlotte, N.C. 704-596-7427 WV Give Our Customers The Best Price! NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION The Intemationai Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) recently sentenced Samuel Imanishimwe, former military commander in the Rwandan armed forces, to 27 years in prison after convicting him on six counts of "genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of ...the Geneva Conventions,” the court reported from Arusha, Tanzania. 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March 4, 2004, edition 1
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