Fair-minded Chicagoans looking for a worthy New Year’s resolution were pointed to a good one last week by Judge James B. Moran of the federal district court.
The judge warned that if Chicago wants to help minority- and female-owned companies get a fair share of city construction contracts, it had better come up with a different way of doing it. And he ruled that the changes had to be made within six months or the current program will be discontinued.
Those of us who have struggled for decades to gain a toehold in the construction business suddenly have a decision to make: We can get mad; or we can get better.
Not that there isn’t reason for getting mad.
Shame on the Builders Association of Greater Chicago, an industry group dominated by prosperous, white-owned construction firms, for filing the 1996 lawsuit that created this predicament. Not satisfied with their near-monopoly on private-sector contracts, emboldened, no doubt, by the popular backlash against affirmative action that now echoes from the federal bench, the association challenged the constitutionality of setting aside a minimum percentage of government work for minority- and female-owned contractors.
Do association members really think it is they who are being discriminated against? Do they really think a city that is less than a third Anglo-white and more than half female shouldn’t ask that 25 and 5 percent of tax-funded contracts go, respectively, to minorities and women?
Are they simply greedy? Or embarrassed at their historic failure to mentor and develop minority talent? Or at their furtive use of sham minority “fronts” to make it appear that they’re doing their part? All to divert attention from Jim Crow tactics that have kept non-whites out of apprenticeship programs, construction sites and bid competitions.
No wonder several of Chicago’s most responsible contractors–big names such as Turner, Gilbane, Skender, Bovis and Power–have shunned the Builders Association rather than be party to this disgrace. Good for them.
But enough of mad. The job now is to make Chicago’s program better … or at least meet the criteria set by Judge Moran and recent case law.
In his thoughtful and compassionate 31-page opinion, the judge does provide some guidance. Instead of imposing a “rigid numerical quota,” he suggests the city ride herd on winning bidders to make sure they give minority- and woman-owned businesses a fair shot at subcontracts. There must, however, be measurement and accountability, so if the winners don’t make the effort, the city can impose fines or liquidated damages.
Strangely, Judge Moran accurately traces the historic impact of racism on minority hiring and the awarding of public contracts. Then he repeats the neo-conservative mantra that racial considerations ought not play a part in setting things right. Hmmm.
Stranger yet is his suggestion that minority firms be “graduated” from the program once their annual revenues reach just $17 million, as opposed to the city’s more generous $27.5 million.
Experience tells me the city’s graduation level is, if anything, too low. Size matters in construction. A $27.5 million company is barely able to maintain the back-office capability–estimating, accounting, purchasing, scheduling–necessary to bid on, say, a district police station or branch library. How are they supposed to compete with a $1.8 billion giant such as Walsh Construction on, say, a college dormitory or–dare I suggest–an airport terminal?
Or is it our “place” to stay small? To be grateful for any leftovers once the majors have their fill?
Yet it is the small firms, not the $27 million mediums, that now face extinction. Recent experience shows what’s in store. Even Judge Moran acknowledged that minority contracting fell by half after the elimination of set-asides at Cook County and at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
I am not convinced set-asides can be replaced. But if they are, I do know that only a widespread effort at voluntary affirmative action could begin to fill the void.
By that I mean a full-court press by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Gov. Rod Blagojevich and our region’s top business and civic leaders. By that I mean that no government, hospital, university, financial institution, major downtown landlord or responsible corporate enterprise would begin a rehab or construction project without a significant minority presence on its construction team.
A reasonable expectation? I don’t see why not. Daley has been a strong backer of economic opportunity for minorities and women. Civic groups such as Metropolis 2020 have argued that our region will not thrive as a house divided between majority haves and minority have-nots.
And that, ultimately, is what’s at stake. Not the survival of a few hundred small construction companies, but of hope itself.
Construction is one of the last industries where a non-professional can earn a decent wage. It is a last hope for thousands of unemployed black youths in this region; not to mention thousands more now behind bars, who will soon walk our streets, looking for honest work.
Chicago’s minority contracting program must be saved and improved, not condemned and enjoined. This is a New Year’s resolution worthy of all fair-minded Chicagoans. We have six months to make it happen.
