BR Metro Council Funds $300,000 “Disparity” Study of City Contracts

Summary

We want to do business with everyone except white male own businesses regardless of the increased cost.

Who gets the 300k to do the study?

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Slightly more than 9 percent of City Hall's 1,115 purchase orders in 2016 went to small and minority-owned businesses, said Chief Administrative Officer Darryl Gissel. Nearly half of the East Baton Rouge Parish population is black,

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I could not give much of a frick about half the population being black. I would be somewhat interested to know what percentage of business owners are black. And I would be totally interested in not wasting my tax dollars on this dumbass study.

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Sounds like racism

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Broome's administration had said the study could give the city-parish the legal framework to adopt goals for inclusion of certain types of businesses in its contracts. The study will focus on minority-owned businesses,

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So weave and rim shops

ETA: weaves for Broome and rims for the city admin vehicles

This is BR moving towards a Fair Share program. Many southern cities have pretty stout DBE/HUB participation requirements including Houston at 23.7% goal which is always surpassed.

My biggest issue is the cities that have the programs and don’t enforce the actual participation of the small businesses. In these cities the politically connected minorities simply collect a paycheck a say “deal with it” to the prime contractor. At least in Houston the participation from them is on the mark as most small businesses here do great work.

We just participated in a bi-annual disparity study for Houston.

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Slightly more than 9 percent of City Hall's 1,115 purchase orders in 2016 went to small and minority-owned businesses, said Chief Administrative Officer Darryl Gissel. Nearly half of the East Baton Rouge Parish population is black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2016 figures.

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That's a meaningless comparison. How many local businesses are owned by minorities?

1-"consulting" for governmental agencies is one of the biggest frauds around. Any citizen can obtain this information by filling out the paperwork, and paying a small fee for "printing". yes, that is correct. Why $300K?

2-I also would like to know how many options would be left if the parish/city had to buy from a minority owned business. Not many. "Sole specifying" is also illegal by Public Bid Law in LA. Even though there are ways around this.

3-Stating a minimum % minority participation does nothing but create BS pass through companies. Seen it. Dealt with it.

4-Presently, specific to the materials I deal with, you can claim a "Produced in LA Preference". As long as you are within 10% (I think) of the low bidder, you are allowed to match that price IF you can prove that your materials are produced in LA. Great rule, but how many other materials are actually made in LA?? Not many.

5-US Army Corps of Eng has numerous seta aside programs like: DBE (different definition that DOTD), Small Business, Veteran Owned Business, HUB Zone (location), etc.

6-City of NO has a +/-36% mandatory DBE on EVERY project. Complete BS. See #3. The construction at the Airport right now is a clear example of what I am talking about.

7-LADOTD has mandatory DBE participation, but it fluctuate according to how many Federal Dollars are involved in that given project.

Hope this helps clarify some of the misconceptions regarding this crap. It better have helped, because all this did was aggravate me and my white male self.

Our parish leaders cannot make sure police officers, sheriffs deputy’s, or any city parish employee injured on the job is taken care of.

Our parish leaders do not have enough money to replace city police cars and other city parish property or assets that have been damaged in the 2016 flood.

Our parish leaders do not have enough money to clean ditches and fix drainage issues in this parish.

Hey, let’s spend $300,000 on a study to see if minority businesses are given a fair chance at bids in this parish!

Let’s see solid waste contract which will begin in March 2018 will not go to bid to help local minority businesses. It will be renewed without bid and given to a national company that gives small sections of the contract to a New Orleans based company. Wait until you see your 2019 rates and you will start thinking who is getting paid. Seems like we could give this small part of the contract to a local company instead.

How about the contract to tear down abandoned buildings going to Richard’s Disposal which is not a Baton Rouge based company while local companies do not have a fair shake. Seems like we could employ local companies to do this work. Yes, there are minority, locally owned demolition companies.

How about the sewer work in EBRP how many of these companies are not local doing this work? The last neighborhood I was in one contactor was from Mississippi and the next one that fixed their problems was not local either.

Seems like DPW is the largest violator of not helping local minority businesses.

Funny, if you look around you will see this is a $300k feel good measure or someone got paid off to do the study.