The State of Missouri recently announced a public meeting on January 29 to discuss a statewide disparity study. It’s the first peep the public has heard from the Office of Administration since August, when minority advocacy groups protested the state’s hiring of the firm Collette Holt & Associates to conduct the study.
Yaphett El-Amin, executive director of MOKAN in St. Louis, questioned why the firm is just now reaching out to minority and women business owners. She said the lack of communication supports her initial concerns that the firm will not conduct a thorough analysis.
“It’s up to the state to make sure their consultant reaches out to the minority community,” El-Amin said. “We shouldn’t have to look for her with a flashlight in the day light.”
Celeste Metcalf, director of the state’s Office of Equal Opportunity, said she believes the firm has been busy working with state agencies to gather statistics.
“We have not heard any more rumblings since the fall,” Metcalf said. “I can’t say whether or not we’ve worked out anything. The pot could still be steaming.”
The disparity study will review the state’s minority- and women-owned business (MWBE) program and will help the state establish new data-driven goals for hiring minority and women businesses.
Missouri state government last completed a disparity study in 1996, and that’s how state officials established its 10 percent MBE and 5 percent WBE goals on all government contract spending. However, the 1996 study is now considered out-of-date and useless in court, Metcalf said.
Many local governments and public agencies started conducting disparity studies after the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the City of Richmond’s minority participation program for municipal contracts was unconstitutional, after finding that the city failed to identify a substantial need to level the playing field for minorities and women business owners.
Richmond had a black population of just over 50 percent and had set a 30 percent goal in the awarding of city construction contracts, based on its findings of local discrimination and lack of access for minority-owned businesses.
The ruling required that a “fact-based approach” determine whether or not qualified minority firms have been underutilized. The Croson decision led a number of local and state governments to abandon their MWBE programs, while others proceeded to conduct disparity studies that addressed the court’s requirements for proof of harm from discrimination.
Disparity studies provide legal validity to inclusion programs. However, they can also provide evidence of racial discrimination and bring about lawsuits from MWBE communities.
The 2010 disparity study for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) found racial discrimination in the department’s contracting process.
The study – contracted by IDOT in 2009 – found that disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs) represent 25.55 percent of the available construction firms. However, they only received 8.25 percent of the construction prime contracts under $500,000 from 2006 to 2009, according to the study conducted by Mason Tillman.
No workforce diversity goals
Metcalf said Missouri’s new disparity study will only look at contract spending data – not workforce. Currently, the state does not have any established workforce diversity goals among its agencies, she said.
In 2010, Governor Jay Nixon passed an executive order that requires each department of the executive branch to submit an annual workforce diversity plan and to meet biannually with the state’s compliance officer about the departments’ workforce goals.
According to the order, Metcalf’s office is supposed to compare the state’s workforce data to the Census. However, in the office’s 2012 annual report, it stated, “We regret that this annual report will not contain any references to workforce diversity as in prior years.”
According to the 2011 annual report, 11.86 percent of state employees overall were African-American and 11.34 percent of the state’s population was African American, based on the 2010 Census.
However, some state departments’ workforce diversity was lower than others. In the Office of Administration, only five percent of its 2,057 employees were African Americans. Also in the Department of Transportation, five percent of its 5,800 employees were black.
Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis city branch of the NAACP, said he does not understand why the state would not want to address the question of workforce diversity while it has the chance.
El-Amin said, “That’s putting money in the hands of African-American workers. Most people spend their money where they lay their heads.”
The public meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Wed., Jan. 29, in Room 510 of the Harry S. Truman Building in Jefferson City. People can participate remotely in St. Louis at the Wainwright State Office Building, 111 North 7thStreet, Room 923, and in Kansas City at the Fletcher Daniel State Office Building, 615 East 13th Street Room 503. For more information, contact Collette Holt at 855-692-6529 or email her at missouri_study@mwbelaw.com.