The Charlotte City Council Monday night opened the door to possibly adding race and gender goals to city contracts, voting to hire a consultant to explore ways to bolster minority hiring.
Council members voted 7-2 to hire Franklin Lee of Baltimore-based Tydings & Rosenburg. That consultant will review the work of a previous consultant, and give the city advice as to whether it could legally have specific race and gender goals in awarding city contracts.
The city had a gender- and race-based program for awarding city contracts until 2003, when it scrapped that plan after being sued. It then created a program designed to help all small businesses win city contracts, which is still in effect.
But the record is mixed as to whether that 9-year-old program has worked.
A 2011 study, by Tallahassee, Fla-based MGT of America, found that minority-owned and women-owned firms were getting more work from city contracts under the 2003 program. However, MGT found that some minorities, particularly African-Americans, were still getting far less work than other groups.
MGT recommended against bringing back the race- and gender-specific hiring programs.
One reason is that MGT found the city was making progress, and that would make it difficult for such a program to withstand a legal challenge.
But some council members were concerned about the continuing disparities. James Mitchell, a Democrat, has said he supports a return to the previous race-based program.
During Monday's dinner meeting, Mayor Anthony Foxx said he was concerned about disparities, though he stopped short of saying he wanted a return to the old program.
"We have to correct (the disparities), whether it's a race-conscious program or something else," Foxx said.
Foxx added during the regular council meeting: "No one is arguing to abandon the small-business program altogether."
Republicans Warren Cooksey and Andy Dulin voted against hiring the second consultant.
"A top consultant said the data doesn't support changing," Cooksey said. "To me this reeks of consultant shopping. I say the buck stops with the first one."
MGT of America, which was paid $305,450, compared the five years before 2003 under the race- and gender-based program with the five years before 2011 under the small-business program.
It found that spending by large contractors with minority and women-owned businesses increased by 166.5 percent since the city moved away from the race- and gender-based program.
The consultant also measured how often firms were used in city contracts. A score of more than 100 suggests a racial or ethnic group is being overused. A score of less than 80 shows a "substantial disparity."
Among subcontractors, the score for African-American firms was 46. Hispanic firms scored 25. Non-minority women (107) and Asian-American firms (124) had higher scores.
African-American architecture and engineer subcontractors had a score of 24.
The new consultant will review MGT's work.
Franklin Lee will be paid $10,000 for the review and travel expenses up to $15,000.
His work is scheduled to be finished in April or May.
Democrats John Autry and Patrick Cannon didn't attend the meeting.
