Opinion ID: 1662051
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the challenged ordinance

Text: Ordinance 77-257, as amended by Ordinance 79-140, [1] commences with a finding that, due to historical patterns and practices of racial discrimination, minority business enterprises (MBE) have not obtained an equitable share of contracts or subcontracts let by the City of Birmingham. The ordinance further finds that official policies of overt discrimination against minorities have ceased, but that existing policies and programs of the City have not eliminated the lingering effects of such past discrimination. As set forth in the ordinance, the purpose of the enactment was to encourage, facilitate and effect greater participation by minority business enterprises in construction contracts let by the city. A minority business is defined by the ordinance to be any business enterprise in which minority group members hold at least fifty percent ownership or, in the case of a publicly owned business, one in which at least fifty-one percent of the stock is owned by minority group members. Minority group members, as used in the ordinance, means United States citizens who are Blacks, Spanish speaking, Orientals, Indians, Eskimos, or Aleuts. For all construction contracts let by the City and exceeding the amount of $20,000, the ordinance sets a goal of fifteen percent to be expended with bona fide MBE contractors, subcontractors, or suppliers of goods or services. The ordinance requires that a contractor make a good faith effort to meet the fifteen percent goal. However, the inclusion with the contractor's bid of a specific plan to expend at least ten percent of a contact amount with MBEs is accepted as sufficient evidence of a good faith effort to meet the fifteen percent goal. Any bid not accompanied by a list of proposed MBE subcontractors is considered nonresponsive, unless accompanied by a request for a waiver. Under the ordinance provisions, a contractor may be granted a waiver of the MBE participation requirements for the following reasons: (1) Lack of a qualified MBE in the Birmingham Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. (2) Inability to obtain reasonably competitive prices from available MBEs in the Birmingham Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. (3) Failure of MBEs to give notice of their desire to participate as subcontractors with respect to a specific contract. Each time a contractor makes a request for payment under the contract, he must submit a signed writing which lists his participating minority subcontractors, the work they performed and the amounts paid to them. Finally, the ordinance provides that a contractor's noncompliance with ordinance terms constitutes a breach of the contract by the contractor.