During the Bulls$%# Decade (2000-2009), the City spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on studies and plans on the inequities of services, facilities and economic opportunity for the African-American community.
The Pensacola City Council, led by city staff, would not fund a disparity study, which is detailed analysis on the inequities which can used to create and support a minority vendor initiative—one that would withstand a court challenge.
Instead they paid for what has become known as the pre-disparity study of City of Pensacola’s Procurement and Small Business Enterprise (SBE) Program, which was released in 2009. The numbers aren’t good.
From FY 2005-FY 2007, the City of Pensacola used 1,616 vendors only 12 were minorities (less than 1 percent)- 8 African-American, 1 Asian-American, 1 Hispanic-American, 2 Native Americans.
Of the 1542 white-owned vendors, 16 were owned by women and 1 by physically disabled.
If you look at the dollars spent, it’s not much better. For the three year period, the City awarded contracts for $272,272,147 – 98.06% went to white male-owned businesses.
African-Americans $2,841,025 (1.04%)
Hispanic-Americans $923
Asian-Americans $26,396 (.01%)
Native Americans $57,912 (.02%)
Non-minority Women $5,291,430 (1.94%)
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The City Council deserves some credit for at least doing this study. The Escambia Board of County Commissioners, ECUA Board and School Board haven’t even taken that step to analyze their purchasing and procurement programs.