While the city\u2019s policies are good, \u201cthe practices are not consistent with policy,\u201d said Dr. Eleanor Ramsey, founder and CEO of Mason Tillman Associates.\n<\/p>\n
There have been four disparity studies during the last 20 years, all showing a pattern of discrimination against women and minorities, especially African Americans, she said. \u201cYou have good procurement policy but poor enforcement.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMost minority- and women-owned businesses did not receive their fair share of city-funded contracts,\u201d she continued.\u00a0 \u201cOver 50% of the city\u2019s prime contract dollars were awarded to white-owned male businesses that controlled most subcontracting awards. And nearly 65% of the city\u2019s prime contracts were awarded to non-Oakland businesses.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
As a result, she said, \u201cthere is a direct loss of revenue to Oakland businesses and to business tax in the city\u2026\u00a0 There is also an indirect loss of sales and property taxes (and) increased commercial office vacancies and empty retail space.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Much of the discrimination occurs in the methods used by individual city departments when issuing outside contracts. Many departments have found \u201ccreative\u201d ways to circumvent policies, including issuing \u201cemergency\u201d contracts for emergencies that do not exist and providing waivers to requirements to contract with women- and minority-owned businesses, Ramsey said.\n<\/p>\n
Many of the smaller contracts \u2013 59% of total contracts issued \u2013 never go to the City Council for approval.\n<\/p>\n
Some people argue that the contracts go to a few big companies because small businesses either do not exist or cannot do the work. But the reality is that a majority of city contracts are small, under $100,000, and there are many Black-, woman- and minority-owned companies available in Oakland, said Ramsey.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil we address the disparities that we are seeing, not just in this report but with our own eyes, we will be consistently challenged to create safety, to create equity, and to create the city that we all deserve,\u201d said Fife.\n<\/p>\n
A special issue highlighted in the disparity report was the way city departments handled spending of federal money issued in grants through a state agency, Caltrans. Under federal guidelines, 17.06%. of the dollars should go to Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs).\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact is that only 2.16% of all the dollars awarded on contracts (went to) DBEs,\u201d Ramsey said.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking at the committee meeting, City Councilmember Ken Houston said, \u201cIt\u2019s not fair, it\u2019s not right.\u00a0 If we had implemented (city policies) 24 years ago, we wouldn\u2019t be sitting here (now) waiving (policies).\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about us? We want vacations. We want to have savings for our children. We\u2019re dying out here,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Councilmember Charlene Wang said that she noticed when reading the report that \u201ctwo types of business owners that are consistently experiencing the most appalling discrimination\u201d are African Americans and minority females.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gotten worse\u201d over the past 20 years, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s notable that businesses have survived despite the fact that they have not been able to do business with their own city.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Also speaking at the meeting, Brenda Harbin-Forte, a retired Alameda County Superior Court judge, and chair of the Legal Redress Committee for the Oakland NAACP, said, \u201cI am so glad this disparity study finally was made public. These findings \u2026 are not just troubling, they are appalling, that we have let\u00a0 these things go on in our city.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need action, we need activity,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need for the City Council and others to recognize that you must immediately do something to rectify the situation that has been allowed to go on. The report says that the city was an active or inactive or unintentional or whatever participant in what has been going on in the city. We need fairness.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Cathy Adams, president of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce, said, \u201cThe report in my opinion was very clear. It gave directions, and I feel that we should accept the consultant Dr. Ramsey\u2019s recommendations.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand what the disparities are; it\u2019s going to be upon the city, our councilmembers, and our department heads to just get in alignment,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
Said West Oakland activist Carol Wyatt, \u201cFor a diverse city to produce these results is a disgrace. The study shows that roughly 83% of the city contracting dollars went to non-minority white male-owned firms under so-called race neutral policies\n<\/p>\n
These conditions are not \u201ca reflection of a lack of qualified local firms,\u201d she continued. \u201cOakland does not have a workforce shortage; it has a training, local hire, and capacity-building problem.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThat failure must be examined and corrected,\u201d she said. \u201cThe length of time the study sat without action, only further heightens the need for accountability.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disparity Study Exposes Oakland\u2019s Lack of Race and Equity Inclusion Part 1 By Ken Epstein A long-awaited disparity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[184,387,963,179,965,383,643,968,93,405,972,143,145,144,957,958,88464,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-188245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-city-government","11":"tag-community","12":"tag-economics","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-environment","15":"tag-equity","16":"tag-featured","17":"tag-government","18":"tag-local","19":"tag-oakland","20":"tag-oakland-headlines","21":"tag-oakland-news","22":"tag-oakland-post","23":"tag-post-news-group","24":"tag-request-for-bid","25":"tag-san-leandro"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}