WXXI: Minority Contracting Under the Microscope (2008-09-12)

Rochester City Councilman Adam McFadden announced today he's beginning a process to study minority contracting. McFadden wants to find out if the city could do a better job at getting winning bids from minority owned businesses.

The first step is to collect input from contractors at a 7 p.m. forum on Monday night at City Hall.

McFadden says he's been hearing about the issue from constituents as long as he's been in City Council.

"I would get calls from constituents ... who would say 'there are these developments going on in my neighborhood. Why is it that I'm not seeing anyone who looks like me?' And after hearing that for five years, I began to ask it myself, and I'm not exactly sure as to why that is the case."

McFadden says to answer that question, he's starting the Minority Contractor Disparity Initiative. It'll also be looking into intimidation of minority city contractors. He says he's been approached by four different minority contractors who told him that when they won a bid from the city, another contractor they were doing business with slowed their payments for subcontracting down to a crawl, diminishing the minority businesses' cash flow.
McFadden says if there's a pattern of intimidation, the city needs to come up with a way to deal with it.

The councilman is working with economic development subcommittee chair Dana Miller on the study. He says they're also looking into how well the city is in compliance with state and federal minority contracting rules. And he says once the city has reviewed its contracting process, he'd like the same review to happen at the school board, and the county.

McFadden says the city's current policy is to encourage minority contractors to bid on projects. Rochester accepts the lowest bid for its contracting, but McFadden says that could change if the process isn't fair.

The results of the study are due by the end of the year.