St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer announced last week that the city has paused its certification programs for women- and minority-owned businesses “to assess next steps.” She also said city departments will not issue “any new non-emergency contracts” for construction projects that fall under the city’s Minority and/or Women-owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) goals.
City officials have already halted the certification of new businesses under the current program, shifting instead toward what some have quietly called a “race-neutral” small business approach. While acknowledging that the city’s MWBE ordinance may need to be updated “to reflect the latest disparity study,” Board of Aldermen President Megan Green said it should not be replaced “with a race- and gender-neutral program.”
“It’s an abdication of responsibility”
Walle A. Amusa
The decision, Spencer wrote, was due to threats from the Trump administration and “escalating changes in guidance from the federal government,” adding that “non-compliance would be severe and not limited to the city.”
Federal grants, the mayor said, now require local governments applying for funding to certify that “they do not operate programs advancing or promoting DEI programs” that violate any federal anti-discrimination laws.
The mayor’s letter was issued after days of intense conversations with contractors, minority hiring advocates and the St. Louis Development Corp. Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis City NAACP, attended some of those meetings. The city’s decision, he insists, isn’t as catastrophic as it may appear.
“The strategy is to come up with a way to not impact the city’s ability to get FEMA and other federal dollars but at the same time address the issue in front of us,” Pruitt said. All “non-emergency” contracts, he added, are “on hold,” which will impact Black as well as white contractors.
Additionally, he said the city has agreed to hire Rodney K. Strong, the noted CEO of the Atlanta-based public policy law firm Griffin & Strong, P.C., who will, over the next 30 days, work with the city to help “shape legislation that creates a supportive City construction contract framework adaptive to the changed federal landscape,” as Spencer said in her letter.
Pruitt agrees with Spencer, who said “the legislation will be ready to file on the first day of the Board of Aldermen’s legislative session,” adding that she will work “to ensure its expeditious passage.”
Most of Trump’s directives targeting diversity, equity and inclusion have been erroneously based on the Supreme Court’s ban on race-conscious college admissions, which doesn’t “legally” apply to minority participation goals.
Last week, The American quoted the American Civil Liberties Union, which urged governors and mayors to use their own executive powers to push back against Trump’s radical, “unconstitutional anti-DEI agenda.”
Pruitt doesn’t see that as a prudent option for St. Louis at this time.
“Why risk having the city thumb its nose at the administration and have them come in and shut down all our federal funding?” Pruitt asked. “Yeah, we can take ’em to court, but who knows how long that’ll take or if we’d even be successful. So why not do what we’re doing now to accomplish our goals?”
Civil rights activist and construction industry consultant Walle A. Amusa, who also attended the meetings with city officials, couldn’t disagree with Pruitt more.
“The (Spencer) administration is making a great mistake, a great error. The decision the city has made is quite unfortunate,” Amusa said. “What President Trump is doing is illegal; it is based on poor reasoning and an illusion that we live in a color-blind society when the fact remains that we don’t.”
Disputing Pruitt’s claim that all other major cities have “shut down” their minority participation programs in response to Trump’s threats, Amusa noted that at least 18 states — including California, Washington, Colorado, Illinois and Maryland — have filed or joined lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s policies concerning DEI initiatives.
“It’s unfortunate that the city is negotiating against itself by trying to eliminate programs that were put in place to address disparities that have been proven.”
Citing St. Louis’ history, Amusa recalled how the lawsuit filed by minority contractors in 1990 accusing the city of racial discrimination led to its 25% minority and 5% M/WBE participation goals. To maintain those goals, Amusa added, each participating city must conduct a disparity study every five years.
With attorney Strong’s help, Pruitt believes the city will be able to present “a good, solid argument based on a qualified disparity study” that will help it continue its M/WBE goals while complying with the changed federal framework.
St. Louis, Amusa added, completed its disparity study last year and is already following federal law. To capitulate now, he added, is a sign of timidity.
“To just arbitrarily eliminate legislation passed based on disparity studies is a violation of the democratic rights of the people of this city,” Amusa stressed. “It is cowardly to compromise the rights of people just because someone has threatened you.”
In a letter Monday to Casey Millburg, Mayor Spencer’s policy director, Board President Green, noted that the city’s M/WBE program is “grounded in the findings of a disparity study” and urged the office to “reconsider its current course and reaffirm the legality and integrity” of the program.
“We should continue to move forward, with confidence in our legal standing and commitment to remedying historical inequities, while also preparing for any necessary clarifications that may be required,” Green wrote.
Spencer lauded “the policies and programs designed to overcome systemic discrimination, lift communities, create opportunity and right past wrongs (that) have driven our city forward.”
Her words, to Amusa’s ears, ring hollow and irresponsible.
“Voters in the city of St. Louis elect mayors and aldermen who’ve passed legislation that says ‘because of disparities that have been proven, there should be minority and female participation on city projects.’
“In my view, to do anything in opposition of that is an abdication of responsibility.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.
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There’s always ways around the Trump push back. Even though the title might change, policies can still be in place just worded differently so it’s not targeted. Why draw attention when it’s not necessary?
The difference between St. Louis and “18 states — including California, Washington, Colorado, Illinois and Maryland” is that the states have the time and resources to fight the Federal Government. St. Louis has neither, nor do they have support of the State of Missouri. I agree with the Mayor. We need to find a way to work around this for the next few years.
It should be noted that Mr. Walle Amusa is a successful minority developer who returns to the comforts of his nice home at the end of each day. He has not had his roof blown off, walls blown down, home flooded by heavy rains, or had to endure trip digit weather temperatures. He has not lost everything he has ever owned and worked for or having to worry about how he will travel to the next food giveaway, regular job, transport any children to school, or endure more temperature extremes. Winter is only a couple of months away. Mr. Amusa, is far from praying that he will receive desperately needed funds from FEMA or elsewhere like those who have been devastated by this tornado. It should come as no surprise that this activist is willing to risk losing all funding because he is more concerned about protecting his own wealth than the poor people who are still suffering from this unprecedented storm. The scripture teaches us that “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” in Mathew 6:21, in the New King James Version of the bible.
The fact that a tornado devastated areas of the city and that these political games must be played in order to get crucial FEMA funding should have been better highlighted.