MWBE CONTRACTGuarantees?

The City of Chicago has agreed to award a guaranteed combined 30% of Olympic construction contracts to minorities and women owned businesses. The Chicago 2016 team has also agreed, according to the SUN TIMES, “to develop employment training programs and create a "scorecard" by which Olympic vendors will be judged. The more minority subcontractors they hire, the more diverse their workforce and the more community residents the firm employs, the higher the ranking. “ Now that I have resigned from The Chicago Commission on Human Relations, I can reveal my true feelings about set –asides in contracts. I AM AGAINST THEM!! Reason Number One: Historically, many contractors using MWBE (Minority, Women Business Enterprises) have been caught “cheating” when it turns out the MWBEs are just “fronts” for male owned businesses. When I received MWBE status for my company, it was a very arduous process to complete and to get certification. The fact that there are phony MWBEs means that someone in the approval process is circumventing the rules. I am not accusing anyone; I am just stating my opinion. Reason Number Two: Sometimes the best man for the job is a MAN. I want the City to hire whoever is best QUALIFIED to build the stadium that people will be sitting in, not hire whoever has MWBE certification. I don’t want an UNQUALIFIED construction company doing the building of a stadium that might collapse and send everyone tumbling. (Not an Olympic sanctioned sport) I am not saying that there are not qualified MWBE construction firms; there are. I am saying that everyone should be competing on a level playing field. Having a vagina does not make one a better builder, having experience and expertise does.