The City of Methuen making public its plans for construction of a projected $1 million clubhouse building at the city’s Nicholson Stadium.
According to a request for proposals, an approximately 4,600 square foot single-story structure would house men’s and women’s locker rooms, bathroom facilities, offices and a multi-use room.
General contractor bids must “comply with Supplier Diversity Office benchmarks to contract with minority and women business enterprises for at least 10.4 percent of the cost,” will be received by the City of Methuen until 10 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 18. Sub-bids for various trades will be accepted until 10 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 9.
A pre-bid conference by the city will be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, September 2.
The city received a $500,000 grant from the Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs’ Gateway Cities Parks Program to help pay for project costs.
Why do race, ethnicity, and sex need to be considered at all in deciding who gets awarded a contract? What justification does the city have for this 10.4 percent set-aside?
It’s good to make sure contracting programs are open to all, that bidding opportunities are widely publicized beforehand, and that no one gets discriminated against because of skin color, national origin, or sex. But that means no preferences because of skin color, etc. either–whether it’s labeled a “set-aside,” a “quota,” or a “goal,” since they all end up amounting to the same thing. Such discrimination is unfair and divisive; it breeds corruption and otherwise costs the taxpayers and businesses money to award a contract to someone other than the lowest bidder; and it’s almost always illegal—indeed, unconstitutional—to boot (see 42 U.S.C. section 1981 and this model brief: http://www.pacificlegal.org/document.doc?id=454 ).
Those who insist on engaging in such discrimination deserve to be sued, and they will lose. Does the city have lawyers who have looked at this?