Chron's Olson: "MWBE showdown at City Hall"
The Chronicle's Brad Olson reports that next week's Council meeting could be entertaining:
A federal judge today ordered the city to put to a City Council vote a settlement agreement over the participation of women in Houston's minority business program. The settlement, part of decade-old litigation over the legality of such municipal contracting efforts, would have put women-owned businesses into the same category as small businesses. That would have left women business owners with a smaller "set-aside" portion of city contracts than currently exists, a fact that spurred a furious lobbying effort from local and national women contracting and business associations, given the prominence of the city's minority business program.
According to Olson, the city's attorney argued the matter hasn't been put on the agenda because it doesn't have the votes to pass. Apparently, most parties agree that it will not pass.
There is so much that is wrong here that we'll start with just a few items and let readers pile on: 1) Why is a federal judge setting a City Council agenda? 2) How much money has been spent by the various parties trying either to secure taxpayer goodies or to direct taxpayer goodies to special interests differently? 3) Do we really need these programs, or are they mostly about rewarding special interests with taxpayer goodies these days?
Please do join the conversation!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/17/09 10:50 PM | Houston Miscellany | Print | Comments (10)
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