BY LAURA GOLDBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Three Cincinnati Council members said Saturday they want a guarantee from Hamilton County Commissioners on minority participation in stadium construction or they will ask City Council to sue the county.
The plan came during a town hall meeting organized by the Baptist Ministers Conference and other community groups to discuss minority participation in building new Bengals' and Reds' stadiums. More than 40 people attended.
Meeting organizers say the county is falling short of a pledged 15 percent participation goal for women and minorities made during a 1996 agreement with City Council.
But county officials say they are working toward the goal voluntarily because they can't legally use minority set-asides.
Councilman Todd Portune suggested the crowd show up at the next commission meeting June 17 and demand officials keep their promise. If commissioners don't agree, he said, the city should take them to court.
"This contract is law," he said of the city-county agreement. "It doesn't say we will try. It doesn't say we will aspire. It says the county shall."
Said Councilman Dwight Tillery: "I've been ready to sue them. . . . I told people a long time ago this was just not going to work."
But County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said,"The Cincinnati City Council can go down that path of frivolous lawsuits and bickering and infighting, but that really doesn't accomplish the goals that we all set out to accomplish, which is to properly reach out to the minority community through this public works project and others and do some good work."
He said the county remains committed to meeting the goal within the law and is meeting the agreement. Among county steps, he said, are making sure bid packages are sized so that small businesses can apply and encouraging minority firms to bid and working with them to make sure they meet requirements.
So far, he said, the participation of minority and women on the Bengals project is just over 10 percent.
He also said city officials should "look in their own backyard" and fulfill the commitment they made as part of the stadium deal to give Cincinnati Public Schools $5 million a year for 20 years. Also during Saturday's town hall meeting, copies of an April 3 letter from County Administrator David Krings to Ohio's public works commission director were distributed as evidence the county is not committed to minority participation in construction projects. Mr. Krings asked the state to waive or modify set-aside requirements for local projects getting state capital improvement dollars. Four road projects the county is to get state money for this year are cited.
The reason, he wrote, is recent court cases have held that such set-aside and goal programs are unconstitutional and meeting the state rules "could result in substantial liability for Hamilton County."
Mr. Tillery said he will introduce a resolution before City Council Wednesday asking the state to deny the request.
Mr. Bedinghaus said the letter is not related to the stadium project. He said it represents the reality that court after court is knocking down laws for set-asides, quotas or affirmative action. "Hamilton County is on the cutting edge of doing the right thing voluntarily," he said.
Linking the letter to the stadiums, he said, shows a lack of good faith on the part of some of the county's critics.
