President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his disdain for diversity, equity and inclusion and has vowed to act on it, endangering federal contracting programs and, potentially, federal funding for education and social programs.
Unsurprisingly, City Council members are now concerned about a Trump White House assault on Chicago’s coveted minority set-aside program, and they’re wondering what the city can do to insulate that program.
At a City Council budget hearing Wednesday, newly-appointed city Chief Procurement Officer Sharla Roberts was asked what she intends to do to Trump-proof a program that Black alderpersons say is not doing nearly enough to share the wealth with companies owned by African-Americans.
The city spent $273 million on construction contracts this year, but Black-owned companies got just $18 million, or a 7% share. That’s compared to $52 million, or 19%, for Hispanics and $31 million, or 12%, for Asian-Americans.
“I sent you an article when the judges in Kentucky and Indiana struck down the DBE [disadvantaged business enterprise] program there. I’m concerned about the impact that, not just that legal decision, but also the apparent movement by the Trump administration to reduce DEI focus in the country in general,” said Finance Committee Chair Pat Dowell (3rd). “What are you doing to protect the city of Chicago and our program?”
Without offering specifics, Roberts talked about ensuring that Chicago’s set-aside program is “narrowly tailored,” in part, by establishing a “centralized compliance” unit that gathers more information about all sub-contractors — not just companies owned by minorities and women.
“When they review these types of programs, they will look at all types of firms that receive contracts,” Roberts said. “So moving forward, we’re going to make the recommendation to the other departments that are currently doing compliance that they track that information as well, so when they look at the city as a whole, they’re not just going to look at [Procurement Services].”
Roberts also referred to the 2021 “disparity study” mandated by a federal judge that former Mayor Lori Lightfoot used to support her decision to extend the construction set-aside program until December, 2027, after tweaking eligibility requirements.
“We’re going to review the…recommendations to ensure that we follow the recommendations from that disparity study and, moving forward, we’re also going to see if we need to conduct a new disparity (STUDY?) because that information was done in the area of construction. And we may do a disparity study that not only includes construction but professional services,” Roberts said.
The offer to update the disparity study was not enough to satisfy Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), who has championed a pilot program that expanded the set-aside program to include veterans.
He noted that DBE programs are “under attack at the federal level” and “because of the folks that are suing, the state of Illinois has decided not to put any goals” on some state projects.
“What are we doing to make sure we’re prepared for any type of challenge from any future lawsuits?” Villegas said.
Conservative groups have filed lawsuits that target corporations with workplace initiatives such as diversity programs. emboldened by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2023 repeal of affirmative action in college admissions. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, recently said it is ending racial equity training programs and re-evaluating supplier diversity initiatives.
Roberts said Chicago’s minority set-aside program has “a little bit more flexibility” than the federal DBE program, but it closely complies with Small Business Administration rules on federal contracts.
Chicago’s construction set-aside program is one of the nation’s last, but the road to maintaining it has been rocky.
In 2003, a federal judge responded to a lawsuit filed by the Builders Association of Greater Chicago by outlining a series of legal deficiencies in the set-aside law and giving the city six months to correct them.
Under the revamped ordinance, Asian-Americans were no longer automatically included in a “presumptively socially disadvantaged” group that includes African-Americans, Hispanics and women. The redrawn ordinance also included a five-year sunset provision.
In 2012, the city initiated a “Phased Graduation Program” allowing minority contractors who exceed the program’s size standards to gradually exit over three years. Those firms get a 75% credit the first year, 50% in year two and 25% in year three.
Four years later, minority and female contractors demanding a bigger piece of the pie temporarily derailed then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to extend the construction set-aside program for five years. The Council ultimately approved the extension after Emanuel agreed to raise the bar by two percentage points for both minorities and women.
Roberts was appointed in September to replace ousted Aileen Velazquez, a Lightfoot holdover.
Velazquez was forced out and given an undisclosed negotiated settlement to compensate her for the early end of her mandatory term.