The head of a minority contractors association is crowing that a federal judge?s decision on Friday denying a quick appeal to the University of Maryland Medical System Corp. is a major victory for his lawsuit to open up the hospital?s records on hiring of contractors.
Arnold Jolivet, president of the American Minority Contractors and Businesses Association, said what he won was “90 percent of the case” he filed last year.
U.S. District Court Judge William Quarles on Friday denied the medical system an immediate appeal of his March 17 ruling that the corporation is “an instrumentality of the state,” and thus must observe the Maryland Public Information Act, requiring a release of records to Jolivet.
Jolivet, who is representing himself in court, is trying to prove that the medical system discriminates against minorities in the awarding of contracts, including construction projects largely funded by the state.
Jolivet initially had filed suit in state court, but it was moved to federal jurisdiction as a civil rights matter. The judge ruled that the state exercised substantial control because the governor appoints its entire board of directors, the General Assembly can reclaim its assets, and the corporation must report its finances to the legislature and the Board of Public Works.
The corporation wanted to appeal the judge?s decision before he issued a final order in the case.
Joan Shipper, vice president for communications, said in an e-mail that the medical system “is disappointed by the court?s refusal to certify an interlocutory appeal that would allow the Fourth Circuit to resolve expeditiously the question of whether UMMS is governed by the Maryland Public Information Act.”
“Regardless of which side ultimately prevails at trial, an appeal is likely,” Shipper said. “We remain confident that ultimately UMMS will prevail.”
Jolivet has asked the judge for a number of other things in the case, including financial damages, the overturning of contracts and to make the medical system follow the state?s Open Meeting Act. But those requests were “superfluous,” Jolivet said. Opening the records “was the essence of the case. We were really trying to get them to comply with the Public Information Act.”
The Rev. Daki Napata has also filed a lawsuit against the medical corporation on the same issue. The hospital needs to stop “giving these bids to these white majority contractors,” Napata said, and expanding its operations into “poor black and poor white communities.”
