Observers at Baltimore City?s weekly Board of Estimates meeting know Arnold Jolivet.
The managing director of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association, Jolivet often advocates vociferously on behalf of minority- and women-owned businesses before the board, which doles out half a billion dollars a year.
You challenge contracts awarded by the BOE almost every week, arguing that minority business owners aren?t getting their fair share. What?s your beef with the current system?
There still is resistance on the part of the elected officials and even the purchasing directors and even black elected officials to enforcing the law properly. They don?t believe in the law or believe that it is just and needed.
Why are the laws that set aside money for minority contractors on government construction jobs necessary?
The laws provide a remedy for minority-owned businesses based on damage done by past discrimination when it was blatant, outward and open. The U.S. Census Bureau is predicting that by 2030, the majority of the U.S. small-business owners are going to be African-Americans, women and new immigrants. If we don?t build them up to be strong and give them opportunities to be healthy now, we will all suffer.
Many minority contractors believe one of the founders of your organization, Robert Clay, who police said committed suicide in 2005, was killed. What is your take?
Obviously he was murdered. It was not suicide. He was so awesome a leader that there could have been those that wanted to hurt him or kill him. Once he undertook to go against someone, he was completely committed, and that made him a threat to some people.
