Posted on 06/05/2014 4:58:52 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
A group representing minority contractors is calling on the city and the Atlanta Falcons for transparency in construction contracts for the new $1.2 billion stadium replacing the Georgia Dome.
The Georgia Black Constructors Association said Monday it wants leaders to create a task force that would ensure there is minority participation in the bidding process. The task force should include members of the black business community as well as community leaders and a representative from the city, said association president Margaret Muhammad. “We are open to meetings to see if we can get some transparency and information about the participation process,” Muhammad said.
The Falcons have said they want to have at least 31 percent of participants involved in the new retractable-roof stadium to hail from minority- or women-owned businesses.
But Muhammad questioned the amount of participation by minorities in the current demolition process and called on the team and city leaders to launch software that could be used to alert minority contractors to know when contract opportunities become available.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
If you are a contractor bidding public sector work, you should already know that the public bid process requires a 30 day minimum notification to be published in places like the AJC. If you are particularly interested in bidding this particular job you can certainly follow the bid process in publications like Dodge, AGC, Bid Clerk etc.
If you are a contractor doing business, you should already have some clue how to seek and procure work.
For the last 30years,feds states and cities have kissed minority contractors’ azzes to beg them to bid work. That they do not win what they think is their share is their problem, not the problem of the bid process. It is actually stacked against the traditional contractor in a lot of cases. They have to spend time and money wooing the minority contractors and fill out special forms with the bid outlining their efforts to convince a bunch of folks to participate in a process that they do not participate in. Many minority contractors believe that they should simply be given the work because they are minorities.
I have absolutely no use for organizations such as this one. If they are that concerned, maybe they should spend their time setting up special bid rooms for their members and participating in the bid process instead of whining about it. They are not OWED a damn thing.
The reality is that black set-asides on public construction projects, which nominally go to the low bidder, have been a standard in Atlanta for decades.
GA FReeper ping.
Well said. And you’re quite a dreamer, aren’t you?
;-P
True transparency is a good thing. But, that phrase may merely be code for “you had better pick one or more of us for major portions of the job.” Gee, I wonder why I am so cynical about these things these days.... Maybe the evidence?
Just positioning themselves to be paid as “prime” contractors by the connected, white-owned contracting firm that has already been positioned to be awarded the project. The black companies won’t have much direction in the project. They will simply be structured as lead contractors through which monies will flow to pay the employees of sub-contractors provided by the connected white-owned firm. Sufficient skim having yet to be negotiated.
The Georgia White Constructors Association could not be located to provide a comment.
There have been many a minority-owned, black-owned, woman-owned, small-disadvantaged business owned (virtually every victim group in the book) shill companies formed with the appropriately victimized minority as its titular head.
They are nothing more than incompetent rake-offs for some qualified business that has to sub-contract to them to get the business.
As far as I’m concerned, this practice IS the Reparations for which so many clamor endlessly.
You nailed it. They have access. They just want more. That’s fine. But you have to be competent and the low bidder.
“Many minority contractors believe that they should simply be given the work because they are minorities.”
Great post. Your statement is spot on. This is exactly what happens in DOD contracting via the scumbags at the Small Business Administration. This is racism in it lowest form and we are suppose to shut up and accept it. Racism against the “evil” white majority is doubleplusgood comrade.
I flew through there a few years back and had an hour layover.
I noticed that every employee of the airport was black. EVERY SINGLE ONE.
Let me translate: That it would ensure that they get a disproportionate share of the tapayer plunder that this egregious misuse of government power represents.
In many cases they give a minority contractor a 5% bonus... even if their bid is 4.9% higher than yours, they are considered the low bidder
Maybe Cobb County is still to close to Atlanta’s disorganized gangsters.
Remember who did the public finance deal for Atlanta’s Dome? Maynard Jackson’s Jackson Securities! George Smith tax free bonds yielded 7.875%. Small example racial extortion endemic to the Fulton County Metro Atlanta culture club .
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