Black contractors held an emergency meeting Wednesday night after obtaining a letter from a Missouri Department of Transportation official stating that MoDOT “will not pursue” separate goals for Disadvantaged Business Enterprises.
The Oct. 5 letter, sent from MoDOT’s director Pete Rahn, was addressed to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
It comes as a surprise to the minority contractors and politicians after MoDOT postponed awarding contracts for the main span of the Mississippi River Bridge to November 5, in order to get federal confirmation on the DBE waiver application.
Advocacy groups believe minority-owned construction firms would have a better shot at getting contracts if a federal law regarding Disadvantaged Business Enterprises is waived.
By federal law, minority- and women-owned businesses are lumped together as Disadvantaged Business Enterprises.
In order to receive federal money for transportation projects, the State must include these enterprises in the projects. However, numbers from the recent federal stimulus package show a disparity in how the funding was divided among women-owned businesses and minority-owned enterprises.
“The black contractors are in full battle mode now with MODOT having betrayed its commitment to seek the waiver,” said Eric Vickers, spokesperson for the Minority Inclusion Alliance.
The African-American Business and Contractors Association (AABCA) and the Metro East Black Contractors Organization (MEBCO), who led the emergency meeting, sent a letter to Rahn on Wednesday, stating:
“Because MoDOT has demonstrated a lack of good faith by deciding to not pursue with IDOT a waiver for the MRB project, we resolve to use any and all legal means necessary to implement separate goals for minorities and women implemented on the MRB project.”
Lester Woods, director of MoDOT’s newly created external Civil Rights division, previously emailed Vickers, stating that, “The Mississippi River Bridge main span DBE goal has not been finalized. MoDOT and IDOT are still in the developmental phase of setting the DBE goal, and it will become public once finalized. Per our discussions, at the MRB Roundtable meetings, the main span DBE goal is estimated to be between 15 to 20 percent.”