FIGHTING FOR FAIR CITY CONTRACTING

July 2, 2003

Chicago Defender

Aldermen appeal to federal judge: 'Save affirmative action'

A coalition of Black, white and Hispanic aldermen and business people Tuesday united behind the city's affirmative action program that Ald. Daniel Solis (25th) said is under assault by a white group of contractors who want it all.

Saying the set-aside program "opens doors of opportunity" for people of color, Solis said the coalition is against returning to the "old boys network" that excluded them from public contracts.

At a City Hall press conference, Solis was joined by Alds. Arenda Troutman (20th), Billy Ocasio (26th), Carrie Austin (34th), Madeline Haithcock (2nd), George Cardenas (12th), Ray Suarez (31st), Rey Colon (35th), Walter Burnett (27th), Manny Flores (1st), Helen Shiller (46th), Ricardo Munoz (22nd); Heddy Ratner, copresident of the Women's Business Development Center; Aurora Venegas, president of the Azteca Corp.; Tracye Smith, executive director of the Chicago Minority Business Development Council, Mike Gonzalez, president of the Hispanic American Industry Association (HACIA), Perry Nakachi from the Association of Asian Construction Enterprises, and others.

They urged U.S. Judge James Moran, who will soon render a ruling on the case involving the Builders Association of Greater Chicago (BAGC), the group of white contractors seeking to ban the city's affirmative action program, to retain that program.

Burnett said after the BAGC won its lawsuit against Cook County "the county went from 30 percent to minority and women-owned contracts to 2 percent....

"It seems like we're going backwards in dealing with this affirmative action, and I think that those corporations that are funding these lawyers to fight the city to make us pay taxpayers money trying to [end affirmative action] should be put on point.

"I think each one of those construction companies needs to be publicized...and make sure they don't do more work...because they're going against the people and the city of Chicago," Burnett said.

"They're giving me the impression that they're nothing but the KKK with corporate faces...It's time to stand up for what's right and it's time for us to make sure that we don't go backwards...," he said.

"Because minority and female-owned businesses tend to be small, the MBE/WBE program allows them to compete on a level playing field," Solis said.

"It also gives these firms the opportunity to serve as the prime contractor, which may not otherwise happen if they were competing against firms greater than twice their size.

"It is an inclusive program that expands opportunities to minorities and women who traditionally were excluded from the `old boy's network,' if you will...."

Solis said they are uniting behind the city's set-aside program and will urge the judge "not to close the door on the economic gains made thus far, or on the opportunities afforded to the hard working men and women in our communities."

The group is concerned because the BAGC successfully ended Cook County's affirmative action program and is hoping for a repeat victory against the city.

BAGC lawyers argued the 25 percent allotted to minorities and 5 percent to women discriminated against them.

But, during an interview on WVON's Cliff Kelley Show, one of the attorneys defending the city, Michael Fritkin from the Chicago Lawyers Committee, on cross examination got the BAGC to admit it is already receiving $4 billion annually in public contracts.

This association, Fritkin explained, "invoked the equal protection clause, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was originally passed after the Civil War to protect the rights of African Americans against discrimination.

"By relying on the equal protection clause the BAGC is saying that the rights of white males to equal protection of the laws is violated by the city ordinance which gives a slight contracting preference to minority and women-owned firms," Fritkin said.

Referring to the $4 billion BAGC members already have made, Fritkin quipped: "It's not about Black or white. It's about green."

He is submitting more supporting evidence including additional documentary evidence and legal briefs of the University of Michigan Supreme Court decision that retained the affirmative action program at that school.

Copyright 2003 Chicago Defender