April 16, 1999
It should have not come as a surprise to no-one that minority contracting opportunities virtually do not exist. Since the dismantling of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity programs by the City of San Diego and the State, the numbers reported by the San Diego City Council have been appalling!
Minority contractors are receiving less than one percent of the contracting monies spent. In fact minority contractors received less than ONE-HALF of a percent of the monies spent last year!
Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity were struck down under pressure of the General Contractors Association, with the acquaince of the Mayor and city council of San Diego. The White Contractors, who were receiving 90% of the city contracts, convinced the City that they were at an unfair advantage and affirmative action was no longer necessary.
The politics at the time, repeatedly stated by Pete Wilson's frontman Ward Connerly, a Black, was that minority communities were on equal footing with the general public. If proof was needed as to this absurdity and that racism and discrimination was alive and well, need only to look no further than at these contracting numbers.
These are the kinds of numbers that should have caused moral outrage by our elected officials, in particular councilmembers Juan Vargas, George Stevens, and Christine Kehoe, and the other democratic members of the Council. Instead there was just mild concern. It should be noted that developers and contractors doing business with the city are the most generous of contributors to the local political system.
Councilmembers, we are led to believe, are elected to represent the interest of their district and the city at large. Councilmembers, however, are driven by those with money and contractors have plenty of it. Money is always in short supply in the minority communities, and as such, historically, have suffered economic, political, and educational discrimination. When numbers indicate that the City is the money-cow for the white community there is cause for alarm. The lack of reaction by our elected representatives makes it quite clear that the minority communities have no representation within city hall. And this is a situation that must change if America is to survive.
That the San Diego City Council decided to throw a bone to the minority contractors by allocating $120,000 for a job training, mentoring, and out reach program was nothing but a demonstration of patronizing of the worse kind!
This is the third such meaningless program that has failed to stem the tide of racial hypocrisy by the San Diego City Council. The last such program was initiated in 1998 when a $66,000 dollar grant was awarded, this was a part of a much larger program, Winning Opportunities for Responsible Contractors, started two years earlier, operated by the Minority Contractors Consultant Group. It was a 2-year program that provided mentoring and on-the-job training for small, minority and female-owned businesses.
Our city council ignored these failed programs and decided to throw good money after bad! Instead, the city should have saved the money for a sign at city boundries stating: America's Finest City; Minority Contractors Not Wanted!
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