MWBE showdown at City Hall

As reported in the Chronicle blog

March 17, 2009

Mayor Bill White could be in for a rare occurrence at City Council next week: a no vote on an agenda item.

A federal judge today ordered the city to put to a City Council vote a settlement agreement over the participation of women in Houston's minority business program. The settlement, part of decade-old litigation over the legality of such municipal contracting efforts, would have put women-owned businesses into the same category as small businesses. That would have left women business owners with a smaller "set-aside" portion of city contracts than currently exists, a fact that spurred a furious lobbying effort from local and national women contracting and business associations, given the prominence of the city's minority business program.