I just watched a replay of Tuesday’s Greensboro City Council meeting and took note of a very interesting vote. The N&R notes in the sidebar that the council “approved a $15.4 million contract with J.M. Thompson Co. to build the new GTA Transit Operations and Maintenance facility.”
Back in December the council sent the contract out for rebid because contractors were having trouble meeting goals for DBE participation.
City transportation director Adam Fischer reminded the council that 12 percent MWBE and DBE participation was a goal, not a mandate. J.W. Thompson came in as the low bid, and a city evaluation concluded that they had made a good faith effort to reach the 12 percent goal, even though their proposal had less MWBE-DBE participation than D.H. Griffin, which was the fourth bidder on the project.
There was brief council discussion before council member Zack Matheny made the motion to approve the contract. Despite government’s overwhelming concern with affirmative action, I honestly thought the council was going to unanimously vote to approve the contract move on with the project.
But the vote came in 7-2, with council member Jim Kee and —-surprise—- Mayor Bill Knight voting ‘no.’ I can understand Kee’s vote —–it’s understandable he would look after minority contractors —– but I don’t understand Knight’s vote.
Don’t get me wrong —you know I have no longing for a public transportation facility built with fed money — but failure to approve the contract probably would have sent it out for again, further delaying the project based on policy that runs counter to the free market.
With that in mind, I can’t understand why the mayor cast his ‘no’ vote.
