Comments on: Portland seeks more minority evaluators

By: Diversity lacking in engineering, architecture « Daily Journal of Commerce – Building and Construction News in Portland, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:47:52 +0000

[…] 2010 at 10:47 AM PT BY: Melody Finnemore Tags: minority contractors The city of Portland’s difficulty in finding minority architects and engineers to participate in its Minority Evaluator Program comes as no surprise to many who say the […]

By: say what?

say what? — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:29:20 +0000

To clear up the continuing miscommunication, I, too applaud the Minority Evaluator Program and have enrolled as an engineer. My comment was solely a reaction to the first comment. If that person had his way there would be no minority anything, period.

By: Virgina Cohen

Virgina Cohen — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:56:39 +0000

This is obviosly how mis communicaitons starts. I read the article in an entirely different way. This program is NOT a set aside or even giving preferene to low bids on professional services. This is an excellent effort to include an ethnically diverse population to sit on review panels for professional and technical services. Only construction bids are based upon low bid… Most everything else is on the merits and rankings of the proposals. As Mr. Jay says, the program is not designed to give any person or company a preference . RFP’s are ranked and rated in the same manner that they always have been, For those individuals that think that it is a waste of time or do not have time to participate, they can no longer complain about why they are never selected for some of these important contracts. Instead of being on the outside looking in, it’s better to be on the inside looking at the RFP’s and getting better knowledge of how the winners win. “Band Aid on a bigger problem? — This city financially bleeding and have had to make drastic cuts. It’s easy for others to complain, but we’ve always noticed that the complainers never bring anything positive to the table and they wonder why they never get off square one. Portland needs to unite.. Too many egos and haters try to destroy great ideas and projects.

Hooray for Portland in moving forward on this project and becoming the first in the nation. it shows real leadership and committment from those that are willing to step up and be a part of the process.

By: Hiromi featured in an article regarding Portland’s Minority Evaluator Program « hiromi ogawa architects :: news and notes

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:35:35 +0000

[…] Minority Evaluator Program June 17, 2010, 10:31 am Filed under: Hiromi,news,press The Oregon Daily Journal of Commerce called me to ask about my thoughts on the new Minority Evaluator Program. Portland City Council […]

By: say what?

say what? — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:26:24 +0000

Citing Wikipedia:

“The Center For Equal Opportunity is a conservative think tank, which focuses on three specific areas of concern. Namely, affirmative action, immigration and bilingual education. The Center is the leading conservative organization fighting against race-based public policies, known as “affirmative action” in contracting, employment, higher education, and K-12.”

Additionally, I beg to differ about awarding professional services contracts to the lowest bidder. These contracts should be awarded based on qualifications as well as price, as awarding them automatically to the lowest bidder can actually cost taxpayers more money.

By: Roger Clegg, Center for Equal Opportunity

Roger Clegg, Center for Equal Opportunity — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:53:39 +0000

It's fine to make sure contracting programs are open to all, that bidding opportunities are widely publicized beforehand, and that no one gets discriminated against because of skin color, national origin, or sex. But that means no preferences because of skin color, etc. either--whether it's labeled a "set-aside," a "quota," or a "goal," since they all end up amounting to the same thing. Such discrimination is unfair and divisive; it costs the taxpayers money to award a contract to someone other than the lowest bidder; and it's almost always illegal—indeed, unconstitutional—to boot (see 42 U.S.C. section 1981 and comments we submitted to the Colorado DOT here: http://www.ceousa.org/content/view/655/86/ ). Those who insist on engaging in such discrimination deserve to be sued, and they will lose.