In a perfect world, qualified businesses owned by women and minorities would win a proportionately fair share of government contracts.
But when that’s not the case, to make efforts to direct more business to those entities.
With that in mind, we support Denver Public Schools’ of a minority- and woman-owned business program.
The district has hired a consultant to look at its practices and the availability of woman- and minority-owned businesses that could perform the district’s facility design and construction. The district spends about $100 million annually on that kind of work.
This “disparity study,” which is the foundation of any such program, must be based on realistic evaluations of the businesses available to do the work. Otherwise, the program would be set up to fail.
As is apparent from the recent controversy surrounding the city of Denver’s disadvantaged business program, the hurdles to conducting a successful program already are daunting.
Last month, The Post reported that led to a troubling gap in accounting for the proportion of Denver International Airport construction business awarded to a minority firm.
At issue is a $39.6 million contract awarded to a minority-owned firm for mechanical work at the airport’s new hotel and transit center.
The firm, Burgess Services, a construction management company, took a 2 percent fee and subcontracted a majority of the work to a firm that is qualified to do the mechanical work but that doesn’t qualify as a minority contractor.
as to how much of the nearly $40 million ought to count toward meeting the city’s minority participation goals.
It’s necessary to see the city’s final report on the matter before recommending how to improve accounting, but the confusion alone provides a learning opportunity for the school district.
Not only should participation goals be attainable, the rules for how to count qualifying business must be clear as well.
DPS still has a lot of work to do before adopting such a program, including further discussions with the public and school board. But it seems as though the district is on the right track in its efforts to spread its business around in a way that more closely matches the demographics of the city and the businesses that operate here.
