Contracts may give weight to race, gender

Palm Beach County could start taking the race and gender of business owners into account when it awards government contracts.

County commissioners voted Tuesday to accept a study that concluded women and minority-owned businesses don’t get a fair share of some types of county contracts.

In a 5-2 vote, commissioners also instructed staff to develop proposals for an affirmative action-type program after conducting a 30-day public comment period.

“We have institutional racism in our government and our community,” Commissioner Paulette Burdick said. “We need to start today to correct the disparate treatment that is clearly in this data."

Such a program could affect how hundreds of millions of dollars in sales tax dollars are spent. In November 2016, voters approved a 1-cent sales tax increase to fix aging roads, bridges and government buildings.

Final adoption will require more votes and public hearings. Such programs could set goals that a certain percentage of subcontractors be minorities or women. Bid discounts also could be awarded to underrepresented groups.

The county-funded study by California-based Mason Tillman Associates found that black-owned construction firms made up 13 percent of the marketplace but received less than 1 percent of the value of construction contracts awarded from 2009-13.

Commissioners authorized the study in 2014, and the county has spent more than $500,000 on consultants.

The county operated a race- and gender-based program from 1991 until 2002.

Such measures have often faced court challenges. The Associated General Contractors of America Florida East Coast Chapter, an industry group, has retained a consultant to review the study.

Commissioners Hal Valeche and Steven Abrams voted against moving forward. They said they thought more time should have been afforded for outside groups to review the raw data used in the study.

The county only recently released the information used in the study.

“The scientific method dictates you question everything that comes before you,” Valeche said. “That's the way I am looking at this."

The county already has a goal to award 15 percent of contracts to small businesses, but the program doesn’t take into account race or gender.

sswisher@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6634 or @SkylerSwisher