Auditors study St. Paul’s contracting history

By fall, review may provide a ‘roadmap’ for improving the City’s business relations with communities of color

By Anna Pratt (August 15, 2007)

Originally published in The Spokesman-Recorder

Many minority business owners say they are turned away again and again from City-funded projects in St. Paul. On top of that, they claim the City has strayed from the goals of its vendor outreach program to encourage female and minority participation.

That program, known as “chapter 84,” was installed in the late ’90s in the wake of a study that had signaled discrimination against women- and minority-owned businesses. An independent audit of St. Paul’s minority contracting procedures is currently in the works, led by Milwaukee-based attorney James Hall, until sometime in mid-to-late September, according to City officials.

Whether or not the audit will be effective or will lead to change in the long run is debatable, some community members say. They have raised concerns about the auditors’ autonomy and the terms used to define the audit and work plan, plus its overlap with another study.

But Hall has praised the City for undergoing the investigation, which he described as relatively progressive in a time when few other municipalities would willingly go there.

A local task force called the Equal Access Working Group (EAWG) first set the audit in motion several years ago in response to longstanding complaints that the system for doing business with the City is prohibitive to people of color. Until this past spring, the audit had been subject to various delays, which City officials have attributed in part to a lack of response to its original request for proposals from potential auditors.

They also acknowledge that the audit couldn’t have occurred under the previous administration, which they say was less open to matters dealing with race. In April, the City announced that it had reached an agreement with Hall Legal S.C., a four-member team of attorneys including James Hall that specializes in civil rights and equal opportunity in employment, housing, education and contracting matters.

Also forthcoming is a disparity study that the Florida-based consulting firm MGT America is conducting. By comparison, a disparity study examines broader market forces for evidence of partiality, unlike the more inward inquiry that characterizes an audit. Officials expect the results of the disparity study to be available by the end of September.

Ward 7 City Councilmember Kathy Lantry told a crowd that gathered for an update on the audit’s status at the MLK Recreation Center in mid-July that she hopes both studies will better inform City policy. “It’s up to City officials to make changes,” she said. “The audit and disparity study will give us a roadmap. In the City we always say, ‘We know how to fix this.’ We try it and it doesn’t work. Nobody ever looked at why it failed.”

City contracts under scrutiny

The audit focuses primarily on construction and development from 2002-06, originating in St. Paul’s Planning and Economic Development (PED) department and Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA), according to Hall.

Right now, Hall, who is Black, and his fellow attorneys are reviewing contracts and interviewing key staffers along with minority business owners. They’re trying to obtain a balance of all kinds of documents, he said, encouraging people who have experience dealing with PED and HRA to step forward with their testimonies as well.

Eventually, they’ll take whatever they’ve gleaned from all of these sources to make recommendations to the City for improving its relationship with women- and minority-owned businesses. “Our role as auditors is to review and evaluate City practices and procedures. We’re interested in getting information about interactions with the City,” he said in the community meeting, adding that it’s simply not their place to “resolve any grievances.”

The auditor said that while he couldn’t disclose what kinds of details have surfaced in the audit so far, which is a condition of his contract with the City, his team is adhering to independent and objective auditing standards. Therefore, they have the ability to choose what kinds of documents they want to be privy to, and not the other way around, he said.

“Our work is ongoing. We’re still in the process of attempting to obtain anecdotal information about the experiences of individuals who have interacted with the City.”

Attorney Bill Lynch, who sat alongside Hall at the MLK Center gathering, added that while they’ve also been in touch with the consultant who is leading the disparity study, both initiatives are completely separate. Some community members have expressed concerns that the audit would turn into a disparity study and not make the City accountable.

Lynch explained that it’s a logistical thing; that is, they don’t want to double up on each other’s efforts. “We aren’t intending to rely on this information. [MGT] is crunching a lot of numbers, and we want to make use of some of it without having to re-crunch the numbers,” he cautioned.

Lynch also explained that the review’s purpose isn’t to point fingers, either, or to place blame, but rather to provide a constructive synopsis of the City’s strengths and weaknesses.

While they don’t have the authority to carry out whatever recommendations they make, “When we complete the work, we hope the audit will serve a useful function. We understand the mutual desire of the City and community to improve the process in terms of inclusiveness of minorities,” said Hall.

How will the audit be used?

While at least one member of the interfaith advocacy organization ISAIAH expressed optimism about the audit’s progress after the meeting, some Black community members who have tried and failed are less willing to see things in a positive light. For example, Fredrick Newell, the owner of Newell Companies that provides lead investigation and nails construction services, criticized the lack of advertising for the event.

Newell, who is involved in a lawsuit against the City regarding the way it doles out contracts to minorities, urged officials to be more transparent. “Don’t do it in the closet,” he said. “Keep it in the press. We need this to be a collaborative effort. The community needs to be informed and brought in.”

Vanessa Levingston is an African American who worked until recently as an outreach and recruitment liaison for the Apprenticeship Opportunities Pilot Project (AOPP), an effort through the YWCA of St. Paul to place minorities in construction jobs. She said there are other issues at stake that aren’t being addressed by the audit or the disparity study.

As someone who has observed firsthand the kinds of stumbling blocks that prevent many Blacks and other people of color from landing jobs on local construction sites, and who has tried to be proactive about it, Levingston said issues involving unions and the retention of employees have yet to be addressed.

At the end of last month, she and another Black female lost their jobs at AOPP due to budget constraints, they were told, while AOPP seems to be in transition. For her, this seems to send a contradictory message: “It makes me wonder how serious the City is about resolving these issues,” she said.

Nathanial Khaliq, president of the St. Paul branch of the NAACP and a participant in the EAWG, said he’s reserving judgment on the audit until it’s completed. However, he admitted that it’s unclear how committed the City is to rectifying the situation.

“We’re not sure how serious the City is at this time,” he said. “We haven’t seen any measurable signs of progress that you can point to. I think it’s making a better effort than it has in the past, but we’re looking for more measurable results.”

As for how Councilmember Lantry anticipates the audit will influence the City’s work, she said there’s no plan in place yet. “We didn’t want to presuppose anything about the outcomes,” she said.

The Spokesman-Recorder will continue reporting on the progress of St. Paul’s contracting audit and disparity study, the outcomes of these studies, and the City’s response. Anyone wishing to share information with the auditors can contact them at Hall Legal Project Team, 759 N. Milwaukee St., Ste. 410, Milwaukee, WI 53202, or email rsalawdeh@wisconsininjury.com.