The state Board of Public Works, which approves billions in state contracts and grants, appears ready to adopt a policy that will require some minority business participation in any private construction project that receives state funding.
Two of the three board members, Gov. Martin O?Malley and Comptroller Peter Franchot, were set to approve such a policy at Wednesday?s meeting after Arnold Jolivet, the head of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association, protested a contract in which “only non-minority [firms] were invited to bid.”
“That is clear discrimination,” Jolivet said.
Jolivet was protesting a $636,000 contract for design and construction for a $17 million renovation and expansion of the library at the College of Notre Dame and Loyola College in Baltimore. The project is receiving almost $6 million in state aid.
O?Malley and Franchot voted to approve a new policy on the spot, but they withdrew their impromptu motion after State Treasurer Nancy Kopp suggested such an important policy shift deserved a full public hearing. They will take up the issue again at the board?s Dec. 12 meeting.
O?Malley and Franchot have frequently pressed state agencies to meet the requirement of 25 percent participation for all sorts of contracting. The legislature has turned down efforts to apply those requirements to the University of Maryland Medical System, a nonprofit corporation that is not a state agency.
“It?s something that?s well overdue,” said Jolivet,
Sen. Verna Jones, a Baltimore Democrat who chairs the Legislative Black Caucus, agreed.
“We’ve had public hearings on this, and it hasn’t changed,” said Jones. “People are not having equal access.”
Jones has sponsored bills to make the MBE rules apply to both University Hospital and to recipients of state capital grants, but none has gotten out of committee, she said.
“We need to start breaking down some of these barriers,” Jones said. “I believe the state has some sort of responsibility on this.”
Two weeks ago, the black caucus signed an agreement with the Maryland Hospital Association for a yearlong pilot program to encourage Maryland hospitals to reach out and do business with minority vendors.
