Minorities And Women

Rep. Danny K. Davis leads a House subcommittee that has long arms -- control over federal employee issues, the Postal Service and the District of Columbia. The subcommittee's legislative agenda has not been set, but Davis announced one benchmark this week: Increase the number of women and minorities in the Senior Executive Service, the most elite segment of the federal bureaucracy. "When I leave as chairman of this committee, I don't intend for the numbers to be the same as they currently are," Davis said in an interview.

County Fire Administrator Steven Halford boasted of his record of moving women and minorities into management positions when he promoted 35 firefighters yesterday.But a look into the number of minorities and women in the county EMS/Fire/Rescue shows that the department still has a way to go.Yesterday's promotion ceremony raised one woman to the rank of captain -- the fourth in department history -- and one African-American and one woman to the rank of lieutenant. Two other women and two minorities were promoted within the firefighting ranks.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused yesterday to interfere, for the time being, with California's sweeping ban on government affirmative action programs that give special benefits to minorities and women.In a one-sentence order, and without dissent, the court said it would not block implementation of the controversial California initiative, called Proposition 209, during the time the justices ponder a constitutional challenge to it by civil rights groups.The court appeared not to have been convinced that minorities and women would soon suffer dire effects in state jobs, college admissions or public contracts if Proposition 209 continues to be enforced in coming months.

WASHINGTON -- Texaco Inc. announced yesterday a sweeping plan to open doors for minorities and women, winning praise from civil rights leaders.The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson called off a consumer boycott of Texaco, and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume shelved a threatened stock divestiture campaign.Texaco pledged to boost minority employment, reward managers for achieving workplace diversity, triple the number of blacks who own retail outlets and increase purchasing from businesses owned by minorities and women.

President Clinton said yesterday that he wants to overhaul the government's oldest and largest set-aside program for minority contractors.There's plenty to fix.For many years, auditors and analysts have highlighted a litany of problems with the so-called 8(a) program administered by the Small Business Administration. The program annually funnels billions of dollars of work to companies owned by minorities and women.The analysts have found that most SBA program work is awarded without competitive bidding, a small number of firms win the lion's share of contracts, and many minority-owned firms don't survive leaving the program because they are unprepared for marketplace competition.

WASHINGTON -- The future of federal affirmative action programs seemed to teeter on a constitutional brink yesterday as the Supreme Court, hearing a significant new test case, displayed fresh signs of a split.Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who may hold the decisive swing vote, skeptically quizzed the Clinton administration's top Supreme Court advocate as he tried to defend a federal highway contracts program that gives minority-owned subcontractors an advantage.U.S. Solicitor General Drew S. Days III also ran into insistent questioning by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who has strongly criticized federal race-preference programs in the past but who nonetheless has not been considered a sure vote against them.

WASHINGTON -- The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, speaking for an array of civil rights and women's groups, unleashed a counterattack yesterday against those determined to end affirmative action in the United States.He made it clear who his target was."The new Republican congressional majority is using affirmative action to divide our nation for political gain," he said.Mr. Jackson, leader of the National Rainbow Coalition and a possible presidential candidate next year, urged President Clinton to show "bold and fearless leadership" on behalf of the movement set in motion some 40 years ago by "white judges" to lift the burden of social and economic inequities from the backs of minorities, and later women.

Decent WageAs an African-American whose life work is devoted to protecting the rights of minority workers, I am outraged that George F. Will, of all people, would have the temerity to suggest (column, Feb. 5) that the Davis-Bacon Act is racist.This is part of a campaign by Mr. Will's right-wing friends in Congress to repeal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage protections by spreading disinformation about the law's impact on minorities and women.Such charges are disingenuous at best and malevolent at worst, coming as they do from many of the same people who are trying to gut positive affirmative action programs without quotas.

Washington -- Where, oh, where is President Clinton going to go with affirmative action?A new policy recommendation from the Federal Communications Commission offers some important clues.The FCC and the president are in a similar quandary. Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., and other leading Republican presidential candidates say they oppose affirmative-action policies. Californians are passing petitions to put an anti-affirmative-action referendum on that state's ballot next year, much to the delight of Republicans who hope it will bring lots of anti-Clinton voters to the polls.

A federal commission studying the slow progress of women and minorities in the workplace says breaking the so-called glass ceiling is an economic priority that the nation can no longer afford to ignore.The 4-year-old Glass Commission, which went out of business at midnight Tuesday as it completed its work, also urged the federal government to strengthen anti-discrimination laws and increase efforts to eliminate internal barriers to the advancement of minorities and women.The commission also advised American firms to actively support affirmative action and diversity programs.

WASHINGTON - A Cabinet that looks like America. That's been the goal for recently elected presidents as they put together their administrations. Barack Obama's team is coming into focus in a slightly different light: It looks, to a remarkable degree, like him. The president-elect says he wants to recruit "Americans of great intellect, broad experience and good character." He's fleshing out his White House and administration with men and women who reflect his racial heritage, cultural background and intelligence.

Rep. Danny K. Davis leads a House subcommittee that has long arms -- control over federal employee issues, the Postal Service and the District of Columbia. The subcommittee's legislative agenda has not been set, but Davis announced one benchmark this week: Increase the number of women and minorities in the Senior Executive Service, the most elite segment of the federal bureaucracy. "When I leave as chairman of this committee, I don't intend for the numbers to be the same as they currently are," Davis said in an interview.

Mayor Martin O'Malley attacked yesterday a state initiative to direct government contracts to minority-owned businesses as "falling way short" and angrily dismissed a state-funded sewer project as not adequately engaging companies owned by blacks. After a heated debate with his staff, O'Malley and the Board of Estimates deferred a $33 million sewer upgrade contract because only about 9 percent would have been awarded to minority-owned subcontractors, far below the city's targets. Governments set minority- and women-owned business goals on major contracts to direct a portion of tax money to companies that have experienced past discrimination on public works projects.

Q: If an employee received an annual performance evaluation and does not agree with the rating, is it required that the worker sign the form and then address their concerns in it? Or should an employee refuse to sign the evaluation until the supervisor and the employee come to some agreement of a fair evaluation? S.D.H., Baltimore A: You need to review your company policy to determine the appropriate steps to address a grievance. For the most part, a signature, unless stipulated on the form or in the policy, typically indicates that you acknowledge receipt of the evaluation, not necessarily your agreement with the ratings.

Mayor Martin O'Malley often proudly points to his policy of awarding more city contracts to minorities and women as one of his administration's chief accomplishments. Statistics and testimony provided at a City Council committee hearing yesterday in City Hall demonstrated a far less rosy assessment of the program's success -- although contracts involving two major city departments have not been added. The city's Bureau of Purchases reported on $293 million among the contracts awarded in fiscal year 2004, which ended June 30. But only 7.8 percent of those contracts, or $23 million, went to minorities and women.

Mayor Martin O'Malley is scheduled to announce today that he has picked Samuel J. Lloyd - a veteran economic development official in Maryland - to be director of the city's minority business development office. O'Malley is slated to announce Lloyd's appointment today during a City Hall news conference at which he will also introduce a new program to help minorities and women win more city contracts by teaching them how to navigate Baltimore's bidding process. The Mayor's Office for Minority Business Development carries out one of O'Malley's most important policies - awarding more city contracts to minorities and women.

A federal lawsuit challenging how Baltimore awards contracts to minority-owned companies was settled this week under terms that handed a victory to Mayor Martin O'Malley, who has said that including such firms in city projects is "of the highest priority for this administration." The survival of the city's policy against the latest legal attack bodes well for similar programs throughout the nation aimed at rectifying past discrimination in public contracts, officials said. In 1999, many other U.S. cities suffered the same fate as Baltimore when their minority participation policies were struck down as unconstitutional.

The Maryland chapter of the ACLU is conducting a survey of 13 Annapolis-area private clubs to see if they have minorities and women in their membership, the group announced yesterday. Under a 1991 law, the city grants liquor licenses to private clubs only if they have bylaws that do not discriminate against race or gender. No information is available on whether more minorities and women belong to clubs as a result of the law. "This seems to me to be the natural follow-up question: Has the law made a difference?"

Foes of Gov. Parris N. Glendening's bill to raise the state's minority business contracting goal to 25 percent tried to tiptoe through a political minefield yesterday - professing not to oppose the legislation while suggesting changes that would doom its central objective. Witnesses for various non-minority contractors' groups suggested sweeping amendments, new research, summer study and other alternatives to passing the bill this year in anything close to its current form. They came out of a House committee without significant stumbles.

Doracon Contracting Inc. has built itself into a multimillion-dollar company with a long list of projects to its name, including part of the digging at the site of the Ravens football stadium. But as a black-owned business starting out in 1988, the Baltimore company needed help finding jobs. It got that help from state and city laws aimed at increasing minority contracts for public projects. "What you get from these programs is access," said Doracon president and founder Ronald Lipscomb.