Bill would change minority status

COMPASS SPECIAL SERVICES owner Manuel Martins Jr., who is Portuguese, presently qualifies for MBE status for state contracts. /
COMPASS SPECIAL SERVICES owner Manuel Martins Jr., who is Portuguese, presently qualifies for MBE status for state contracts. /

When state agencies seek bids on fencing jobs, Joseph Martins’ company has a bit of an advantage over the competition.
Wood & Wire Fence Co., in Lincoln – for which Martins is president – qualifies as a minority-owned business under Rhode Island guidelines. That means it has received some special consideration under the law because of a mandate that at least 10 percent of the state’s purchasing and construction spending should be awarded to minority-owned companies.
But proposed legislation would put that advantage in jeopardy because of Martins’ ethnic background: He’s Portuguese.
A bill submitted last month by Providence Democratic Sens. Harold Metts and Juan Pichardo would revise the state’s definition of a minority-owned business, leaving women and people of Portuguese descent off the list of qualified minorities.
Instead, women-owned business would be placed in a separate category, and the proposed measure seeks to mandate that an additional 10 percent of state contracts be awarded to those businesses.
Advocates of the legislation say Portuguese-owned businesses could still qualify for the special status, if they meet the U.S. Small Business Administration’s definition of an economically and socially disadvantaged enterprise.
“We’re not taking away Portuguese – they could still fall under the federal statute,” said Fred Ordonez, a project officer at the social service agency Progreso Latino and a member of an alliance of community groups that drafted the bill. “We’re just saying they should not be defined as a minority.”
Ordonez said the Univocal Legislative Minority Advisory Coalition, a partnership of about 40 community-based minority organizations, is mostly interested in getting more accurate figures on the state’s Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) program by refining the definitions of a minority business.
“If there’s more accurate reporting, then there’s more public scrutiny,” Ordonez said. “And if there’s more public scrutiny, that will probably lead to better participation.”
But the change doesn’t sit well with Martins.
“We are part of a minority – when you’re on the outskirts, just getting crumbs,” said Martins, who arrived in the United States from Portugal 35 years ago and started his business 15 years later. “We’re not with the inside group, and [the special status] forces the state into going outside to the smaller companies.”
Some question whether being certified as a minority-owned business is even an advantage.
The MBE program oversees the amount of state contracts awarded to minority-owned and women-owned companies and contractors, ensuring that state officials attempt to meet the 10-percent threshold.
But the state hasn’t come close to reaching the 10-percent threshold. Program administrator Charles Newton said contracts totaling $75.2 million passed through his office last year, and $3.3 million – or 4.3 percent – went to companies with MBE certification.
Some minority community leaders have complained that the numbers are inflated because women-owned companies are lumped in. Further analysis, they say, show that blacks and Latinos are getting only a tiny fraction of the contracts.
Last week, Newton couldn’t immediately provide an overall breakdown of the amounts, but he said that historically women-owned businesses have received the highest amounts of state contracts, followed by Portuguese-owned businesses. Other minority groups have received less, Newton said.
Stanford Cameron, president of the Center to Advance Minority Participation in the Building Trades, says a change in who can join the MBE program is necessary to help minority companies.
“I’m saying fine to legitimate women-owned business – give the women their own separate 10 percent,” Cameron said. “Let the racial minority groups also develop. We can’t do that the way the system is.”
Metts said he sponsored the original legislation that created the MBE program in the 1980s, when he was a state representative. “It was originally intended to correct an injustice,” he said, referring to the low amount of state work that went to minority-owned business. “It still hasn’t been corrected. Everybody else seems to be doing well, but the minorities are left in the cold.”
The bill – S 2651 – would revise what Ordonez called “antiquated” terms in the existing MBE law. Black and Hispanic would be changed to African American and Latino American.
Definitions, too, would be tweaked. Where people of Brazilian descent fall under the Portuguese definition now, they would be considered Latino Americans under the new bill.
People with Cape Verdean origins – where Portuguese is the official language – would be considered African American since the Cape Verde islands are located off the western coast of Africa.
While Portuguese would no longer be considered a minority group in this legislation, there is a provision that would allow related businesses to qualify for MBE status, if found to be economically and socially disadvantaged by the SBA.
Of the 383 businesses on the list of MBE-certified businesses, more than 30 are considered Portuguese-owned. (Another 207 are considered women-owned.)
Cameron acknowledged that the proposal to remove Portuguese from minority status is “sensitive.”
“But I don’t think they belong in there, honestly,” he said. “They’re going to get their business no matter what. They don’t need to be taking their share of the minority business. They’re well established.
“They’re good people, but they don’t need to be on the minority list,” he added.
Manuel Martins Jr. (no relation to Joseph), owner of Compass Special Services, a Cranston construction cleanup firm, is of Portuguese descent and said he certainly feels like a minority.
“If you look at our history, we’ve always been things like textile workers, bricklayer – we’ve always been at the bottom of the barrel,” he said. “But by saying we’re not considered a minority, I really think it’s almost an insult of the Portuguese.”
He said a small amount of his work comes from the state, but acknowledged that the minority status still is helpful.
“I’m looking to make a mark for myself, and I’m looking for any help I can get, especially in an economy like this … It allows me to be competitive,” he said.
Ordonez insisted the measure isn’t meant to hurt any businesses.
“It’s not about getting rid of anybody,” Ordonez continued. “It’s about correctly reporting things.” •

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