Complaint: Rail project excludes minority-owned businesses
BY JOHN COX, Californian staff writer jcox@bakersfield.com
A civil rights complaint filed Wednesday asks the federal government to withhold its money from the California High-Speed Rail Authority based on allegations that the organization's contracting practices unfairly exclude small and minority-owned businesses.
The complaint, filed by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area on behalf of the Associated Professionals and Contractors, asks the U.S. Department of Transportation to investigate whether the rail authority has violated portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
A press release issued by the groups states that small businesses have received less than 4 percent of the authority's contracting dollars over the last five fiscal years.
The release also says that businesses certified as being minority-owned make up only about 12 of the 134 prime and subcontractors participating in the 10 largest contracts awarded by the rail authority.
"Minority-owned businesses and small businesses have been almost totally left out of the planning, engineering and construction of this project," said Fred Jordan, president of the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce.
The rail authority issued a statement that the project has complied with applicable law, and that contracts are awarded "in a very public and transparent manner."
The release also says that the authority is developing a small business advisory committee, as well as a formal process linking suppliers of goods and services with the project's prime contractors.
So far, no federal money has been awarded to contractors working on the estimated $43 billion project proposed to link Los Angeles and San Francisco by 2020.
Even so, the authority must abide by U.S. contracting laws -- including civil rights provisions -- once it applies for federal money, said Oren Sellstrom, associate director of policy and programs with the lawyers' committee.
Federal money accounts for more than $3 billion of the $4.3 billion recently set aside for the project's first leg from Corcoran to Borden.
Wednesday's complaint adds to various criticisms of the project, from politicians who call the initial segment a "train to nowhere" to observers calling for a fundamental reassessment of the project's financing plan.
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