Minority contract study delays could cost consultant.

L.A. City Council members threaten to cancel pact

Frustrated over Cordoba Corp.'s delays in completing a study of whether local minority-owned contractors have been discriminated against in city contract awards, an L.A. City Council committee last week threatened to rescind its contract

"Time has indeed run out" for Cordoba, said Jackie Goldberg, chairwoman of the City Council Personnel Committee. The committee voted to rescind Cordoba's 2-year-old, $377,000 contract unless the study is in the committee's hands by Oct. 5. Cordoba is a planning, development and systems consultant.

The study was prompted by a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case J.A. Croson Co. vs. the City of Richmond. In that case, the court ruled that in awarding local government contracts, government entities cannot use minority ownership of a company as a criterion unless there is proof of previous discrimination against a particular race.

Affirmative action contracting programs award contracts based on the percentage of companies in a particular industry that are owned by members of a certain minority class. For instance, if a certain percentage of construction contractors in the city are Hispanic, Hispanic contractors should receive that percentage of the total dollar value of contracts awarded.

The Croson ruling invalidated a directive issued by then-L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley in 1983 that called on contractors to "outreach" to women- and minority-owned subcontractors when awarding city contracts. After the Croson decision, the directive was relaxed and less attention was paid to such outreach.

Further, the city is precluded from enforcing the mayoral directive because of another court ruling that such a program can only be implemented by an amendmen to the city charter, which requires a vote of the people.

Because of the Croson decision, if the City of L.A. wants to implement a progra to help minority and women business owners get city contracts, it first has to prove discrimination exists in the contracting process.

Cordoba was commissioned in 1992 to study whether there is a history of discrimination. In January 1994, Cordoba gave a draft of the study to City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie.

The Cordoba study showed that Hispanic, Asian and women-owned firms received a smaller percentage of the contract dollars than they were due, but the African-American-owned firms received more than their share of contract dollars This finding would essentially eliminate African-Americans from an affirmative action contracting program.

The CAO rejected the draft and sent it back to Cordoba for more review. It was never made public.

Cordoba was originally supposed to present a revised draft to the council's Personnel Committee in August, but company officials said it wasn't ready. The deadline was extended two more times, most recently to Sept. 21.

Cordoba officials still aren't finished with the study, but plan to complete it by Oct. 5 "at the outside," Pete Echeverria, senior assistant city attorney, told the committee last week.

Three committee members -- Councilwoman Goldberg, Councilman Mike Hernandez and Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas -- decided to rescind Cordoba's contract unless they get the study by Oct. 5.

Hernandez also suggested suspending payment on any other contracts Cordoba has with the city, but Echeverria said that would be illegal. City Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton added that he has no list of Cordoba's other contracts with the city, but that he would compile one.

Cordoba has already received 90 percent of the $377,000, and will get the rest when the study's completed, Echeverria said.

If the study is not in by Oct. 5, it would be up to the full City Council to decide whether to sue Cordoba for the money it already received, he noted.

If the study isn't completed, city officials may decide to go back to the drawing board and contract with another firm to do a new study, Echeverria said

The committee also agreed to scrutinize the study, in the event it is completed by Oct. 5, for integrity and validity.