Some convention business goes to minority businessesBOSTON -- Organizers of the Democratic National Convention are keeping their pledge to direct some convention-related business to minority-owned companies, but there are still millions of dollars worth of contracts that have yet to be awarded.
"It's too early to measure whether the effort has been successful, but it's not too early to do a check," state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson said on Saturday. "The lion's share of the money has yet to be spent." The City of Boston and Mayor Thomas M. Menino asked for, but did not receive, a guarantee from convention organizers that the convention budget would be spent on hiring city and state businesses. Instead, in the 97-page contract signed in December 2002, the Democratic National Committee said only it would give "due consideration" to hiring local businesses. "All we can do is make sure that people of color are included in the opportunity to participate," said DNC chairwoman Alice Huffner, a panelist at the 21st Century Black Massachusetts Conference held at the Hynes Convention Center. The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. appeared at the conference, held the day before the 36th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King's assassination. He delivered the keynote address at the luncheon and continued to criticize the Bush administration for the war in Iraq. Some minority businesses have already benefited from the convention. About $4 million in DNC money has been deposited in minority-owned banks in Boston, Huffner said. OneUnited Bank, with $500 million in assets the largest minority-owned bank in the nation, has more than $3 million in convention deposits, according to chairman and chief executive Kevin Cohee. "I've seen the effort and the commitment and it's truly legitimate," said Cohee, who was on the same panel as Huffman. "They have made an effort to reach out to minority vendors." In January, convention organizers announced a $3.5 million contract to oversee the construction of the FleetCenter stage had been won by minority-owned Shawmut Design and Construction. Shawmut will team with three other minority businesses on the project, Primary Group architects, SAR Engineering, and the Massachusetts Alliance of Small Contractors as a consultant to bring in minority- and women-owned subcontractors. The committee that selected Boston over Detroit, Miami and New York did so because "we wanted to be in a place where we could show we are a party of inclusion," Huffman said. Huffman was a member of panel at the weekend conference that discussed ways the state's black community could wield its considerable economic clout. When Boston sought to host the convention, many were skeptical of its chances because of the city's negative racial history. But there are also some positives in Boston's racial history, she said. "There is a lot of history in Boston you ought to be bragging about and you don't brag about it," she said. Huffman touched briefly on security for the convention and acknowledged that "residents are having a bit of a problem" with the fact that North Station and a section on Interstate 93 will be shut down at times during the convention. But she added that there would be inconveniences and security issues no matter where the convention was held. Jackson said the United States should be held accountable to the United Nations for going to war in Iraq on "flawed" pretenses. "When nations violate nations they should go before the U.N.," he said. "The United States must play by the same rules other nations play by. "At the very least we should apologize to the families of those people who have died in Iraq, and to the families of Iraqis who have died, who were killed based on evidence they were threatening us, or had weapons of mass destruction, none of which was true." Jackson acknowledged that the U.N. may not be able to punish the U.S. "I'm not sure the U.N. has the power to act against us, but they have the right to make a moral judgment," he said. "You can't kill this many people and say 'Oops.'"
During his luncheon address, Jackson said it is time to "resurrect" King's "dream of justice and democracy." © Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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