Opinion ID: 679519
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of Private Discrimination in the Denver MSA

Text: 74 In recognition that a municipality has a compelling interest in taking affirmative steps to remedy both public and private discrimination specifically identified in its area, Croson, 488 U.S. at 492, 109 S.Ct. at 721, we also consider data about conditions in the overall Denver MSA construction industry between 1977 and 1992. Given that DPW and DGS construction contracts represent approximately 2 percent of all construction in the Denver MSA, Denver MSA industry data sharpens the picture of local market conditions for MBEs and WBEs. 75 According to Denver's expert affidavits, the MBE disparity index in the Denver MSA was .44 in 1977, .26 in 1982, and .43 in 1990. Aplt.App. at 271-74. The corresponding WBE disparity indices were .46 in 1977, .30 in 1982, and .42 in 1989. Id. This pre-enactment evidence of the overall Denver MSA construction market--i.e. combined public and private sector utilization of MBEs and WBEs--gives rise to an inference that local prime contractors discriminated on the basis of race and gender. 23 76 Rather than offering any evidence in rebuttal, Concrete Works merely states that this empirical evidence does not prove that the Denver government itself discriminated against MBEs and WBEs. Concrete Works asks us to define the appropriate market as limited to contracts with the City and County of Denver. Such a request, however, ignores the lesson of Croson that a municipality may design programs to prevent tax dollars from financ[ing] the evil of private prejudice. Croson, 488 U.S. at 492, 109 S.Ct. at 721; accord Contractors Ass'n, 6 F.3d at 1002; Coral Constr., 941 F.2d at 916. 77 What the Denver MSA data does not indicate, however, is whether there is any linkage between Denver's award of public contracts and the Denver MSA evidence of industry-wide discrimination. That is, we cannot tell whether Denver indirectly contributed to private discrimination by awarding public contracts to firms that in turn discriminated against MBE and/or WBE subcontractors in other private portions of their business or whether the private discrimination was practiced by firms who did not receive any public contracts. Neither Croson nor its progeny clearly state whether private discrimination that is in no way funded with public tax dollars can, by itself, provide the requisite strong basis in evidence necessary to justify a municipality's affirmative action program. A plurality in Croson simply suggested that remedial measures could be justified upon a municipality's showing that it had essentially become a 'passive participant' in a system of racial exclusion practiced by elements of the local construction industry. Croson, 488 U.S. at 492, 109 S.Ct. at 721. Although we do not read Croson as requiring the municipality to identify an exact linkage between its award of public contracts and private discrimination, such evidence would at least enhance the municipality's factual predicate for a race- and gender-conscious program. The record before us does not explain the Denver government's role in contributing to the underutilization of MBEs and WBEs in the private construction market in the Denver MSA, and this may well be a fruitful issue to explore at trial.