Minority owned businesses & govt. contracts

[treeguy347]

Since we've been on the topic of help and race was brought up, I thought I would ask: How many have ever bid on a contract for the government (village up to federal and anything between) and had a "minority owned" business get the job just because the government has to meet their quota even though your bid was lower. If you've never been in this situation, what do you think about this practice?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

If all things are equal on the skill level I have no problem. I've had many black freinds over the years and have experianced second hand bigotry.

Just like I'm happy the the Amerinds are able to steal the whitemans money and are screwing the government with treaties.

 

[ORclimber]

Bigotry sucks. Affirmative action sucks.

 

[NeTree]

Affirmative Action had its time and place... and is now nothing but a steaming pile of beurocratic BS.

Erik
[email protected]

 

[rwilk]

Hey guys,

I have not had this happen to me, but I haven't bid on any gov't jobs yet. But here is my problem with this policy is, as a tax payer, I want the gov't agency to spend my money wisely. The city I work for (fire department) has a policy that if a minority business bids on a item (job) they may be 10% higher than the lowest bid and still get the bid.

Let's throw out the fact that this is racial descrimination (reverse), but this is bad business. If your purchasing agent for your company started spending more of your profit margin on a substandard or even an equal product, you would be pissed.

Just my thoughts
rwilk

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Last year, I was contacted by someone needing an estimate for pruning.

As conversation progressed, I found out this man's job was helping people learn the ropes to accessing government contracts.

He asked, for example, if I heard of ProLandscape. I had not.

Its Hispanic. Their site is fairly impressive. Use Google and look up ProLandscape in Portland, Oregon. It should come to screen.

Anyway, it was not until a few months later, that it struck my mind - why didn't this man call them?

He knew them already, but chose to call me based off the information in my flyer.

That says something. I'm not 100% sure what all it says, but I'm thinking on it.

We've even been back for a yard clean-up and bark mulch application, too.

M. D. Vaden
Beaverton, Oregon

 

[cam76034]

The WORST part is that minority owned businesses will receive the contract despite inferior product/services.

Right now, the Fort Worth school district is moaning and groaning over the recent discovery of over 5 million dollars (so far) overcharges for concrete paving jobs either never performed, or substandard work already cracking apart.

What the media hasn't mentioned is that the contractor is a minority owned business. Coincidentally, the approval for the work came from a person who happens to be a minority as well. This approval came from breaking the bids down into multiple jobs of less than 25K each, in order to avoid bidding procedures designed to prevent abuses such as this.

The superintendent of the school board (also of a minority persuasion) says he will get to the bottom of this.

So, yeah, I guess you could say I'm against it.

 

[Toddppm]

I'm not a minority but pretty soon will be , then what?

 

[Greg]

I am against discrimination. For some reason it has been deemed impossible for a black person to be racist and almost impossible for a white man not to be a racist. These programs are STUPID and a waste of tax payer money!! A private individual can make financial decisions any way they want, but governments playing these games with my hard earned money pi$$es me off!!

If a "minority" can't stay in business (or get into a college, or a job, etc...) based on their own merits then they don't deserve it.
Greg

 

[Stumper]

It seems to me that the most effective way to get past racism and bigotry is to stop endorsing it for ANY cause. If people (both individuals and companies/groups are simply evaluated on merits then we would be where Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed-where people are judged on the"content of their character".

Yes. I HAVE missed a job because of reverse discrimination/minority preferences. My opinion about all discrimination was the same before and after the event but I had to fight being POed.

 

[Yellowdog]

It really isn't fair to lose out to minority owned business. Here's the logic. I know a number of businesses that are in women only names yet the women do absolutely none of the work. They just happen to be wives of the workers. This helps them get contracts for bridges and buildings.
I know some Mexican American guys who use their heritage to promote their business and get fed contracts clearing land yet the area I live has Anglos as the minority. Go figure!

There is work, though, fixing the messes left by other companies, minority owned or not. Try to talk to city administrators as a place to start in getting contracts.
I am just now learning that talking to those folks is a backdoor into fixing something that minority or otherwise contractor "b" messed up. just my two cents!

 

[treeguy347]

Well put stumper. Discrimination is discrimination, no matter who is the target of it.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

How many of us white guys have experianced real discrimination? I have as a third person and that was bad enough. How much of the assumption here that minority work is inferior is ingrianed subconciouse discrimination.

There are probably more white hacks out there.

I do not agree with set asides and such be used for inferior contractors to get in, but if all else is equal it is a legitimate form of social engineering.

They just need to require A300 and Z133 compliance and have proper supervision of the contracted work.