CARLTON FLETCHER: Disparity study would be a waste of money

Been a long time coming for the working man.

— Imagine Dragons

Most of us are not now, have never been and never plan to be politicians. So we don’t understand the concept of making decisions based on how we think groups of people are going to vote when we’re up for election.

My favorite quote about that was at a Paul Simon concert during his “Graceland” tour all those years ago when, in a brief moment of silence between songs, someone yelled, “Paul Simon for president.” That got a rousing cheer, but just as the noise died down, Simon said, “I couldn’t stand up to the scrutiny.”

So, I guess, politicians are allowed a little leeway when it comes to making decisions that might come back to haunt them at the ballot box.

But I’m left wondering why the local city, county and school system’s governing boards would allow themselves to be goaded into considering spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for a disparity study sought by the local Minority Contractors Association when every member on those boards — even the newbies — should know that it is one of the biggest wastes of money dreamed up by consulting firms hoping to cash in on local elected officials’ fear of the infamous “D word.”

“Discrimination” to a politician, especially one in a community that has an overwhelmingly minority population, is as frightening as the f-word is to a censor at the Teen Choice Awards, waiting anxiously with his finger on the mute button as bored, no-longer-teen actors try to prove they’re edgy to an audience of tweens who find such juvenile behavior cool.

Now, do I think there is the potential for discrimination in local government when it comes to handing out wads of money for construction projects? Absolutely, although kickbacks are much more likely, but we’ll save that issue for another day. Do I think there’s any way in hell even a hint of overt discrimination against minority contractors could be traced to any of the local governing boards, given that a majority of each is elected by the overwhelmingly minority local population? Can you say political suicide?

See, if old-school commissioners like Jon Howard, Lamar Hudgins, Tommie Postell, John Hayes, Bob Langstaff, James Bush and the like — old-school being a relative term — endorse a disparity study in an effort to weed out discrimination in contract awards, they are, in essence, saying that they did the discriminating. Because every project of more than $40,000 is voted on by these boards.

Unfortunately, when local activists like William Wright come before them with figures indicating a comparably small amount of money from government contracts has gone to minority contractors, many fall all over themselves wanting to “do what’s right” to address this seeming inequity.

Rather than wasting dollars — a half-million of them seem like a low-end cost, given that the last study released in 2008 cost around $450,000 — on a disparity study that’s going to have the same findings as the previous three, it would seem logical that the commission would do something with that money that would actually help the contractors.

For instance, the state Department of Transportation, fat with collections from the increase in gasoline taxes enacted last year, plans to spend millions of dollars with local contractors throughout the state on jobs that in the past have been limited to a relatively small group of businesses. The catch? You have to qualify as a state-approved contractor. And that involves a little paperwork. And, as County Commissioner Harry James — himself a minority contractor — pointed out at a recent meeting, many small businesses won’t take the time to do such paperwork.

James told fellow commissioners that when the county/city/school board/then-Water, Gas & Light Commission/Albany Tomorrow Inc. consortium funded a Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization program a few years back, most small and minority business owners expected quotas and set-asides for work being done, not help in qualifying as a certified contractor. Unfortunately for these contractors, federal law does not allow the things they were looking for.

A new disparity study will no doubt reach the same conclusion. Rather than building false hopes of artificial quotas, it would seem that small and minority business owners would push for a program that would help them qualify for the jobs that are available.

Waiting around for politicians who are hoping to gain footing for the next election cycle to approve a relatively meaningless and costly study to tell you what you should already know only gives the politicians the option of saying “We tried” when they’re up for re-election. Rather than campaigning for something the federal government’s not going to let happen, how about pushing for a program that could actually do you some good?

If, as Wright and others insist, inequity exists in the awarding of government contracts, why not address it in a meaningful manner rather than simply giving politicians baseless sound bites for their next campaign?

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.