Disparity consultant’s contract extended
Action aims to close gap in contracting opportunities.
Palm Beach County has extended the contract of a consultant hired to review studies showing that businesses owned by women and minorities have gotten a smaller chunk of county business than they should have received in recent years.
The $55,000 extension, approved by county commissioners on Tuesday, is another step toward the re-establishment of programs aimed at closing the disparities in contracting opportunities between women- and minority-owned firms and white-owned firms.
Studies spelling out those disparities were conducted for the county as a whole and for the county’s Solid Waste Authority, which oversees garbage and recycling collection.
Mason Tillman Associates, of California, conducted both studies, and both were reviewed by Franklin Lee, an attorney with Tydings and Rosenberg, a Maryland firm that specializes in administrative and regulatory law.
Disparity studies and the women and minority assistance programs frequently justified by them are often opposed by white business owners who view them as a form of reverse discrimination. Many women and minority business owners, however, view them as essential tools needed to level the playing field.
Those divergent views have animated the debate in Palm Beach County as Commissioner Mack Bernard has pushed for the completion of the studies and for the re-establishment, in some form, of assistance programs the county once had in place.
In pushing for the studies and the re-establishment of the programs, Bernard, the only African-American on the commission, has picked up where Priscilla Taylor, the only African-American on the commission during her tenure, left off.
Studies for the Solid Waste Authority and the county have shown that womenand minority-owned firms have gotten fewer contracts than their presence in the local marketplace suggests they should have received.
The Florida chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America disputed the Solid Waste Authority, questioning the methodology used by Mason Tillman and Lee’s review. AGC hired its own consultant, who said the study was “too flawed” to be relied upon as a basis for the re-establishment of gender- and race-based assistance programs.
Commissioners, however, allowed the Solid Waste Authority and county studies to be completed and have moved forward with plans for the re-establishment of gender- and race-based assistance programs.
Black business owners implored commissioners to extend Lee’s contract so he could provide recommendations as assistance programs are re-established.
“It’s critical that we go ahead and pass this,” said Wesley Potts, a black business owner in West Palm Beach. “This is being kicked down the curb all the time. I think it’s time to get this fixed.”
With Commissioner Dave Kerner absent, the commission voted 6-0 to extend Lee’s contract from May 1 through the end of the year.