Orlando ends minority- and women-owned business program, citing Trump rules

Yahoo

2 days ago

The City of Orlando scrapped a four-decade-old program meant to help businesses owned by women and minorities land a piece of its millions of dollars in contracts, citing new federal rules against such initiatives.
City officials' decision Friday to suspend the Minority and Women Business Enterprise program was purportedly in order to receive four federal grants totaling $37 million for renovations to the Orlando International Airport, including updates to Terminal C and bathroom renovations in Terminals A and B. A similar program offered by the airport was also axed on Tuesday.
The move comes amid a push by the Trump Administration to rid the U.S. of what President Trump calls 'radical and wasteful government DEI programs' following his Jan. 20 executive order banning all programs fostering diversity, equity and inclusion.
The city program, originally established in the early 1980s, allowed minority groups often lucrative contracting opportunities to work within the city, including on multi-million dollar projects such as the construction of the Amway Center, now the Kia Center, and the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
Its goal was to support 18% of minority-owned businesses and 6% of women-owned businesses, but at its conclusion had reached 12% participation, said Janeiro Coulter, who oversaw the program.
In an email sent to the city council Friday, Orlando City Attorney Mayanne Downs explained that because the city sponsors the airport, but doesn't operate it, the pre-approved $37 million grant could be at risk with the program in place.
She said that in the past the council had no problem complying with Federal Aviation Administration requirements, but because of Trump's executive orders, 'the landscape has changed.'
'While no court has ever held our MWBE program to be invalid, I cannot in good faith certify that our MWBE program, in its present form, fully complies with these new FAA grant requirements,' she said in the email.
She recommended that any race- or gender-based programs within Orlando be immediately or temporarily suspended, to assure the council doesn't violate Trump's executive order.
Greater Orlando Aviation Authority Board members were alerted to the airport suspending its own program on Tuesday evening.
A letter from CEO Lance Lyttle was sent to board members, stating he'd decided to 'immediately and temporarily' suspend GOAA's program. He added he's attempting to craft a new program expected to have a focus on local and small businesses, as opposed to being specialized for those owned by women and minorities.
'The immediate need to secure funding for the airport and this community has sped this process up and requires us to act quickly,' said Lyttle, who was hired earlier this year.
He said he formed a working group of staffers to study the issue and bring forth recommendations to the board in the next 60 days. 'In the meantime, our Senior Staff and attorneys will address procurements on an ad hoc basis.'
The airport is owned by the city, but operated by a board comprised of Dyer, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and five appointees by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
City Commissioner Bakari Burns said he isn't sure if other programs like My Brother's Keeper, a mentoring program for young Orlando men, will be affected. But he said the council and program officials will still provide support to small, minority-owned Orlando businesses, just in a new way.
'We need to look at what we can get established within the city that will stand the test of time, [and] that will not raise a flag by the Trump Administration,' he said. 'It's going to be a fine line.
Of the 616 minority and women-owned businesses affected, all will still receive support, just not from the Minority and Women Business Enterprise program, Coulter said. He's working on a new, race-neutral program to fill the void.
And while he's not sure when this new program will be implemented, he claimed the process will be as streamlined as possible. For previous businesses that had been supported, no applications will be needed and no current contracts for work will be affected.
'We're going to make it very easy,' Coulter said in a press conference Wednesday.
While not his obvious choice to suspend the almost half-century-old program, which allowed Orlando to move past discrimination and exclusion, he said he's been expecting it since Trump took office and started formulating a plan in the off chance it did.
'I'm a product and a participant of the civil rights movement, so it wouldn't have been my choice,' Coulter said. 'You don't have a choice.'
[e-mail], [e-mail]