THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 18, 1994 TAG: 9410180341
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
The agreement was called ``Fair Share,'' a pledge to boost the economic power of blacks by awarding more city contracts to minorities.
But in the five years since the city and the local NAACP gained nationwide attention by signing the pact, the percentage of city business awarded to minorities has barely budged.
According to this year's annual Fair Share report, roughly 3 percent of Chesapeake's business goes to minority-owned firms.
Five years ago, estimates by Chesapeake officials put the percentage of city business with minority firms at less than 2 percent.
The report was included in the City Council's information packet for today's meeting.
Last year, 162 minority landscapers, plumbers and product suppliers did business with the city, the report shows.
Because the city does not require minority bidders to say what kind of minority they are, there is no way to tell which groups received how many contracts. But Purchasing Director Bill S. Davis estimated that 34 of the 162 businesses - or 21 percent - were owned by African Americans.
He based those estimates on personal familiarity with some of the listed firms, as well as records in which bidders specifically declared themselves as black-owned firms.
The continuing low numbers, local black leaders say, has turned a potentially historic agreement into a hollow promise.
``We started out with a piece of paper,'' said Vincent D. Carpenter, a black financial planner and a member of the five-person committee that drafted the agreement. ``But making it happen is what hasn't happened.''
In 1989, Chesapeake was among the first cities to respond to a nationwide push by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to spread the wealth across racial lines.
Local and national African-American leaders hailed the effort as a turning point for the city.
The ambitions for racial and sexual parity were far-reaching: The city would not only seek out minority contractors, but deposit city accounts in minority-owned banks and increase minority employment within its ranks.
City records show a history of accounts with New Atlantic National Bank, a black-owned institution in South Hampton Roads, dating back to the first Fair Share report in 1990. Those accounts closed when the bank shut down last year, city officials said.
This year's report also shows that of the 3,452 employees hired by the city, 302 were minorities.
March Cromuel, head of the Chesapeake NAACP, said one of the biggest obstacles in realizing the goals of Fair Share may be the very definition of minority.
``The bottom line is, this is not helping black people get contracts,'' Cromuel said. ``You can say that so many contracts were given to minorities, but in reality, it still hasn't been defined as African-American help.''
No written definition of ``minority'' exists as part of the Fair Share agreement. According to Davis, the city loosely follows federal guidelines, which include women as well as racial and ethnic minorities.
Cromuel questioned how many of the white women included in the report actually are responsible for the day-to-day management of the businesses they own.
``Because when you say a minority,'' Cromuel said, ``a white lady can take over her husband's business in her name as the owner, and that counts.''
City Manager James W. Rein pointed out the same problem at a council work session two weeks ago.
``A lot of times,'' Rein said, ``it's a case where white women will take their husbands' businesses in their name, and legally that's a minority contract.''
One solution, said Assistant City Manager Clarence V. Cuffee, would be to create two separate categories of minority contractors - one that includes white women and one that does not. Under that arrangement, businesses owned by white women would not qualify as minority firms for some contracts.
Coupled with this problem, Cromuel acknowledged a lack of sustained support within his organization has caused the commitment to falter.
``The NAACP has not pursued it as far as it should have,'' Cromuel said. ``We should have assessed the city more closely in the follow-up to the agreement.''
Under Fair Share, the NAACP agreed to co-chair a task force that would monitor the city's progress, identify qualified black vendors to the city and inform those vendors when city contracts were available.
That task force stopped meeting 18 months after the signing of Fair Share, according to Cuffee.
``After that,'' Cuffee said, ``those committees somehow were either redirected or took on other responsibilities.''
A frustrated Mayor William E. Ward said that while the struggle for political inclusion has advanced considerably, finding the formula for real economic inclusion continues to elude the city's black leadership.
``One of the biggest disappointments in my 16 years as a council member . . said.
``People say we've had 30 years of black political representation. OK, so be it. But it still hasn't translated into economic power.''
With a $76.9 million road bond referendum on the November ballot, Ward said, the time is ripe for Chesapeake to move past verbal commitments to a more enforceable method of including African-American contractors.
``Every time we go the polls,'' Ward said, ``black precincts vote heavily for these bond referendums. Then people come up to me later and say `OK, where are the contracts?' ''
Ward and other council members tried to answer that question in a recent work session targeting minority vendors.
While some contracts have gone to smaller-scale minority suppliers - everything from paper clips to police equipment - few large construction projects have been given to minorities.
``These companies often don't have the maturity, the experience or the power to get the big bucks,'' said Assistant City Attorney Martin M. McMahon.
One solution, McMahon said, might be to cut those projects into packages minority firms can handle.
``That way,'' said Rein, ``they could build a record and a level of experience where they could get the big contract.''
A voluntary program that would give incentives to contractors who subcontract to blacks was another suggestion brought by the mayor.
More regular monitoring by the NAACP would help, say some black businessmen.
``Blacks are sometimes locked out by undue specifications,'' said Bryan L. Collins, owner of B & E Tax Service and one of the team that drafted the Fair Share agreement.
And the city and NAACP should work to dispel long-standing racial prejudices, said financial planner Vince Carpenter.
``There is still an initial fear when people first walk into a new business'' operated by blacks, he said.
Carpenter has owned Chesapeake Financial Services for four years. But, he said, some clients are still shocked to walk in and see an African American sitting behind the desk.
``You don't care who cleans your office,'' Carpenter said, ``but you care who manages your money.''
Carpenter and Collins said they still stand by the document they drafted and the city that endorsed it.
``The support of a paper is only as good as the people behind it,'' Collins said. ``So their word should be good, and if we didn't believe that, we wouldn't still be here.''
KEYWORDS: MINORITY CHESAPEAKE CITY COUNCIL CONTRACTS by CNB