OIG rebukes SWA on disparity study
Inspector says agency was wrong to extend consultant’s contract.
The Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County made a series of errors in hiring and paying a consultant during a disparity study, according to a report this month from the county’s Office of Inspector General.
That Aug. 14 report, undertaken at the behest of County Commissioner Paulette Burdick, questioned $104,533 in Solid Waste Authority spending for the consultant, research professor George La Noue, and the disparity study’s author, Mason Tillman Associates, of Oakland, Calif.
In November, The Palm Beach Post reported on concerns raised by Commissioner Mack Bernard about the hiring of La Noue, known in contracting circles as an ardent foe of disparity studies and of race-based contract targets.
Mason Tillman found hiring disparities and recommended the authority set aside a portion of contracts for women- and minority-owned firms. La Noue did not produce a public report.
On Friday, the county sued Mason Tillman to turn over background documents from disparity studies it conducted for the Solid Waste Authority and for the county as a whole.
Those documents include the names of women and minority business owners who, after Mason Tillman promised them anonymity, described discrimination they say they faced trying to get county contracts. Those documents were sought initially as part of a far-reaching records request by the Associated General Contractors of America, which opposed set-asides.
The county’s suit and the OIG’s findings are seen by some women and minority business owners as more evidence that the county in general — and the Solid Waste Authority in particular — is not committed to addressing the race and gender disparities Mason Tillman found in its studies.
Bernard, the commission’s only black member, pushed for the disparity studies, both of which