Not only is Mayor Greg Ballard’s administration playing fast and loose with the budget numbers (going from a $20 million to a $65 million deficit) and adding a deceptive property tax increase, but the mayor is now playing games with how well or poorly they’re helping Black-owned businesses.
The Ballard administration is blatantly stonewalling, stalling, obfuscating and down right refusing to release how much city business has gone to Black-owned businesses since 2008.
During his re-election campaign, Mayor Ballard bragged that his administration had spent more with minority business than any mayor. Then last month, the mayor’s minions amped up the brag.
At a reception for Black Expo sponsors, Greg Wilson, the mayor’s head of minority business, bragged to me that the administration had funneled a half billion bucks in the past four years to minority businesses.
Then the mayor himself repeated the boast at Expo’s Mayor’s Black Business breakfast. I thought it a bit odd that while bragging about the half billion, the mayor didn’t give a specific figure of the spending with Black-owned business. Given he was at a breakfast and conference devoted to helping Black-owned business.
So, three hours after the mayor bragged about the half billion investment in minority businesses, I emailed the mayor’s invisible press secretary and his now overpaid director of communications asking for clarification of the mayor’s remarks.
Specifically I asked, “Of the half billion spent in the past four years with minority-owned business, how much of that was spent with the following minority business sub-groups: African-American owned businesses, Hispanic-owned businesses, Asian-owned businesses, women-owned businesses and veteran-owned businesses.”
By Aug. 1, having not received a response to my request, I wrote and emailed Andrea Brandes Newsom, deputy corporation counsel and the city’s public access counselor.
Under Indiana Law (IC-5-14-3), I renewed my request formally under the state’s public records access laws. Six days later I received Newsom’s reply, within the law’s required seven day response period. Newsom indicated that “The City of Indianapolis has initiated a search of its public records to identify and collect those records, if any, which are responsive to your request.”
The same day, Marc Lotter responded to my formal request in an email.
Lotter first revealed that the $500 million spent with minority businesses was actually $492,724,399.24.
Of that, $9,798,145.92 went to Veteran-owned businesses and $158,394,267.36 went to women-owned businesses.
Then Lotter revealed that the remaining $324,531,986.36 went to “minority-owned businesses.” With Lotter adding, “The City does not track the specific ethnic breakdown as you requested.”
What bunk! When a business applies to the city and state to be a certified minority business vendor, the owners of 51 percent or more of the business MUST indicate on the certification application their racial/ethnic heritage. Whether an MBE is Black-owned, Hispanic-owned, Asian-owned (or even Native American-owned) is part of the city’s database. It’s known and for the mayor’s minions to say otherwise is violating state law.
Some facts about minority businesses in Indianapolis/Marion County. Black-owned businesses are the majority (70.8 percent) of the city/county’s 11,638 minority-owned businesses, according to the 2007 Census Survey of Business Owners.
In that year there were 8,239 Black-owned, 1,660 Asian-owned and 1,541 Hispanic-owned businesses in the city/county.
It’s logical then that the vast majority of the business the city’s done with minority-owned business the past four years should have been with Black-owned business.
So why doesn’t the city have this data available on speed dial?
In the past couple of years, several Black-owned business owners have complained to me about the near impossibility of getting contracts from the Ballard administration.
Last fall a Black-owned business owner told me a horror story about bidding on a major city contract. They were the lowest and best bidder, but they didn’t get the contract.
Last week on our WTLC-AM (1310) “Afternoons with Amos” program, another Black-owned business owner claimed they were listed as a minority sub-contractor on a major city contract. Yet the prime contractor, who won the bid partly because of their inclusion of this minority business, hasn’t yet included them in any of the contract’s work.
Democrats on the City-County Council blasted the Ballard administration’s refusal to reveal how much has been spent with Black-owned businesses. Councilman Monroe Gray intimated that the Ballard administration has been engaged in a pattern of using “fronts” to meet minority business goals. And those “real” Black-owned businesses aren’t being given contracts.
U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett and Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry have the responsibility to root out corruption. Maybe it’s time they start investigating whether the Ballard administration’s minority business efforts are legit or illegitimate!
What I’m hearing
in the streets
The Indiana History Center sent me a new book, Indianapolis, A History of Immigrants, for me to review. Written by M. Teresa Baer, the 66 page book purports to examine the different immigrant groups who made Indianapolis their home. Unfortunately the six pages devoted to the story of immigrants of African descent in Indianapolis is extraordinarily superficial, banal and devoid of any meaningful detail.
Example: with all the rich history of our community’s Black historical figures, the book inexplicably only concentrates on Dr. Harvey Middleton’s contributions to exclusion of more legendary Indianapolis African-American leaders.
Indianapolis, A History of Immigrants is superficial and does our Black community an injustice.
See ‘ya next week.
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
