DOJ opens civil rights investigation into Kansas City’s public contracting procedures
The Justice Department on Wednesday said it was investigating whether Kansas City’s public contracting and procurement practices violate anti-discrimination protections.
Kansas City has used quota-based “set asides” in about 30% of its public contract dollars to “favor certain people because of their race and sex and disfavor others,” the department said in a news release.
“All government in this free country must treat all persons with equal dignity and respect and without dividing people into racial and ethnic blocs for the purpose of labeling certain people winners and others losers because of their race,” Eric Dreiband, an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, said in the news release.
In a statement Wednesday night, Mayor Quinton Lucas said under President Donald Trump, there have been numerous investigations of affirmative action-related policies. Often, they investigate “so-called ‘reverse race discrimination,’” he said.
“Let us be clear: these are unfair claims of non-allegiance by an administration in its final hours to diminish extensive and well-researched disparity and equity studies conducted by the city,” the mayor said.
It remained unclear if the Justice Department would continue the effort, given the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
But, Lucas said, “the fact remains: for decades, small businesses owned by minorities and women received significantly fewer contracts and contract dollars than would be expected given their availability in the geographic market from which the city procures construction, professional services, other services and goods.”
Lucas said Kansas City will continue to implement a program to “remedy the historic and ongoing impact of discrimination against small businesses owned by minorities and women” who want to participate in the procurement and contracting processes.
