Chicago: Preferences Lag Behind Promises

The Chicago Tribune reports this morning that city aldermen are “boiling over set-aside disclosures.” Are they angry over a system rife with racial and ethnic preferences? Nope. They’re angry because the city didn’t actually pay out as much money to minority firms as it had reported.

The city of Chicago typically spends more than $1 billion annually on contracts with thousands of vendors, and a 1990 ordinance set a goal of awarding 25% of the value of city contracts to minority vendors. Based on reports of contract awards it appeared to be meeting that goal, but then it was revealed in some litigation that, the contract awards notwithstanding, the actual amount of money being paid out to minority firms was considerably less.

In a Tribune column today, John Kass notes that the city announces that minorities are awarded not 25% but “usually 30 to 45 percent of at least $1 billion in contracts each year.” Kass adds:

But [Mayor] Daley won’t release the fact that minority- and female-owned businesses actually receive only half their share. He refuses to discuss it.

Add rampant fraud and phony minority front companies, with white tough-guy mayoral cronies passing as minorities for $100 million in city contracts, and you might think aldermen would be upset.

They are.

“We can award something, but whether those people end up with that money is a whole different issue,” said Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th). “It is our responsibility as a City Council … to make sure that everyone is getting his fair share.”

“Fair,” of course, now means racially proportionate. Now if that 25% were really a “goal” and not a dreaded quota, there would be no basis for the boiling alderman to feel doublecrossed.

Say What?