North Carolina Newspapers

Page 2A - THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, November 18,1993 Contracts less likely for minorities Continued From Page lA refusal by some white coun cil members to appreciate the effects of past racial dis crimination outlined In de tail In the consultant’s re port. Council member Don Reid quipped, "1 don't relate a fire- bombing In 1960 to discrimi nation today." That drew angry remarks from many African Ameri cans who attended Monday’s work session and led District 2 council representative Hoyle Martin to remind his Republican colleagues that while other ethnic groups came to the country as Immi grants, only blacks had come lln chains. ; It was a Democratic- tcontrolled council which voted 7-4 to conduct the. (Study. Republicans Pat jMcCrory, Reid, Lyrm Wheeler [and Stan Campbell, all of jwhom will return to the next jcouncU, opposed the study. I* A new council, to be sworn liln Nov. 29, will Include six '{Republicans and five Demo- ;-crats. McCullough, president of (McHenry Associates, praised {Majeed’s attempt to speed the {process. "I compliment {Councilman Majeed for the ^tenacity and presence of mind to try to get council to accept this package at the next meeting," he said. "I compliment him for stand ing up for what Is right. We can’t affect change until we deal with the truth. "The deadline for the study was supposed to be July," McCullough said. "1 suspect that the study got pushed out this far, so It Is now facing a new council, a Republican majority who did not want the study In the first place." "They came to the meeting with a timeline stretching out over 90 to 100 days,” he said. "All that was a part of the disparity process. All that has been done. We are basically redoing the whole n 9^* i City council member Don Reid: "There is no way to prove discrimina tion" in awarding contracts. process. I have some ques tions in my mind as to the real Intent of council as It re lates to this process." The schedule adopted by the council Monday calls for a public hearing on Dec. 13, the first meeting of the new City Council and concludes on March 14 with a vote by council on an M/WBE plan revision designed by city staffers. "This Is going to be a major test for the Republican ma jority on the council and for the citizens of this city,” said McCullough. "They have got to decide If we are going to be a world-class city. That means dismantling proce dures that discriminate or exclude people from the pro cess. First, they must face up to the truth." But Reid said Tuesday he does not think discrimina tion is a factor In the dis pensing of city dollars. He discounted the report, noting that it went back to 1715. ’This company has most of this stuff on computer," Reid said. "There Is no way to prove discrimination. I re sent having to pay $187,000 to this company to do this disparity study." "There are laws on the books against discrimina tion," Reid said. "I thought we had a good MWBE program. This report is a condemna tion of what we had been do ing. How far do you go to make sure these firms get business?" The study by D.J. Miller & Associates of Atlanta was commissioned to assess dis parities in the way Charlotte dispensed millions of dollars annually. Last year, for example, of the $272 million in con tracts awarded by the city, only 4% or $10.9 million, went to minority-owned firms. Three years ago, in 1989- 90, twice as much, 8.9% of city contracts went to minor ity firms. Using that data, plus an historical analysis of racial discrimination in Charlotte, the consultants concluded that the city has met the U.S. Supreme Court’s test for tougher rules requiring white prime contractors to do business with minority subcontractors. The study traced racial practices in Charlotte back to slavery and included the firebombing in the early 60’s of four black leaders’ homes and the razing of Second Ward. The study was to be the ba sis for a revision of the city’s Minority and Women’s Busi ness Enterprise Program, which, as presently written, encourages but does not re quire white contractors to hire minorities and women subcontractors. A revision became neces sary after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that some historical proof of dis crimination was necessary before the city could use a race as a factor in awarding city contracts. Critics of the city’s M/WBE program has long argued the city must get tougher if mi norities are to get a fair share of the millions spent annually on construction projects and supply and ser vice purchases. D.J. Miller recommends that the city use race as a fac tor, based on its finding of past discrimination and list a number of changes to the M/WBE program that will help the city obtain its objec tives. The recommendations in clude city-sponsored efforts Hysterectomy moi^e dangerous By Malcolm Ritter ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK - Black women face greater risks of long hospitalization and death when getting hysterectomies, but the reasons aren’t known, according to a study by a University of Maryland researcher. Black women were nearly three times as likely to re main hospitalized for more than 10 days, and three times as likely to die In the hospital, researchers found in analyzing more than 50,000 patients. The reasons for those dis parities and others found in the study are not known, said study coauthor Kristen Kjerulff. But further study might Illuminate important racial differences in health and medical care of women, she said. She said the data could not reveal whether differences in health care or socioeconom ic status played any role. The study raises Important questions that need to be an swered, said Dr. Gloria Bach- s mann, an obstetrics- gynecology professor and di rector of the Women’s Well ness Center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick. She said further research should include data from outside Maryland, because previous work has shown re gional differences in hyste rectomy rates. Researchers should also look for racial differences in the outcome of alternatives to hysterecto mies, such as a fibroid- removing procedure called endometrial ablation and medical therapies, she said. Kjerulff, an assistant pro fessor of epidemiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Balti more, presents the work in this month’s issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gyne cology with colleagues at her school, its hospital and the Maryland Hospital Associa tion. Hysterectomy is the remov al of the uterus, and it Is one of the nation’s most frequent operations. It is most often done to treat noncancerous tumors In the uterus called fibroids, which can cause pain and heavy menstrual bleeding. Other reasons for hysterectomies Include men strual disorders, a condition called uterine prolapse in which the uterus moves down into the vagina, or can cer of the uterus or cervix. The researchers studied hospital discharge records for all hysterectomies per formed at nonmilitary hos pitals in Maryland from 1986 to 1991, a total of 53,159. Seventy percent of the patients were white and 26 percent were black. Researchers found that af ter they accounted for differ ences in age, hysterectomy technique, severity of other medical conditions and oth er factors, black women ran about 40 percent greater risk of complications than white women. The difference ap peared in such complica tions as infection and unex plained fever. Similar analyses found that black women were 2.7 times as likely to stay in the hospital more than 10 days, and 3.1 times as likely to die in the hospital. The overall hospital death rate was low, 19 per 10,000 hysterecto mies, for blacks and whites combined. Black women had the sur gery at an average age of 42, about four years younger than white women did. Blacks got hysterectomies at younger ages for each of a wide variety of diagnoses. That suggests the age dispari ty is due to something in the decision-making process that leads to hysterectomy rather than to an earlier ap pearance of the medical con ditions, researchers said. to see that minority contrac tors get the financing and bonding from local banks that’s required to do busi ness. The city could also re assess its bond waiver pro gram, the consultants said. Davis, a general contractor for more than five years, said financing and bonding are critical. "I think the necessary fi nancing and bonding are the tools, just as much of a tool as a hammer on a job,” Da vis said. "Those types of tools have not been really access ible and, in many cases, not accessible and has put mi nority contractors at a han dicap..The consultants brought this out." "That’s a ripple effect that will always keep you from putting your best foot for ward," Davis said. "It Is obvi ous that the ability of minor ities to obtain finanlncg is very low. In this business, you need capital. You can’t deliver without capital, you can’t get started without cap ital." Also recommended were stricter monitoring to ensure white contractors actually used the minority subcon tractors for which they re ceive M/WBE credit. Audits were also suggested as a way to ensure that con tractor complied with the M/ WBE provisions. Also, the consultants said, the city should reorganize the procurement and con tracting process, computer ize the M/WBE program and centralize the entire opera tion to ensure all depart ments were complying. D.J. Miller even suggested a mathmatical method for the city to set its targets and rate annual performance. Dame Jocelyn Barrow Continued'From Page lA whites, especially men. "The problem we have Is they’ll hire us to do the dirty job, won’t train us and won’t promote us," Barrow said. In Britain, things haven’t gotten to the point where the races are equal, Barrow said. It’s beginning to discourage young blacks, who face an es pecially difficult time mov ing ahead In life. ’We have the desperation and hopelessness, that feel ing of helplessness," Barrow said. 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