St. Louis’ Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise program has resumed and will continue accepting new contracts for public works projects. The program, which Mayor Cara Spencer had paused in August, will have new goals to help equitably hire construction contractors.
Spencer paused the program after the city received a letter from the U.S. attorney general’s office and the Department of Transportation pressuring it to comply with the Trump administration’s policy around DEI programming.
The St. Louis Development Corporation will begin working on issuing hiring rules on how to calculate specific project goals instead of having an overarching program goal for public contracts.
“The City of St. Louis proudly remains committed to using its spending powers in a way that effectively and fairly addresses the disparities documented in contracting,” Spencer said.
During the pause, a consulting firm reviewed the city’s business certification program initiatives and its 2024 Disparity Study, which evaluated the city’s use of diverse businesses and workers through contracts. While the program was under review, the city found that it did not have policies in place that reflected the study, and it put the city in legal limbo. The consulting firm provided recommendations that helped the city legally resume its diverse contracting activities.
Through an executive order, the SLDC and city departments must consider the disparity study recommendations, and the Board of Aldermen must write new legislation that reflects the findings in the study.
The study identifies clear disparities in the way the city awards contracts, and in return, it shows up as economic disparities, Spencer said.
“This will not only (be) sound legally, but is rooted in a path to addressing the clear disparities that were outlined in the 2024 Disparity Study, and will move our city and our region forward in very meaningful ways for not only our minority contracting community, but the city as a whole,” she said.
St. Louis officials collaborated with the city chapter of the NAACP and various minority- and women-owned construction community organizations to ensure the program continues to practice equitably and legally.
Yaphett El-Amin, executive director of MOKAN Construction Contractors Assistance Center, a construction advocacy company in St. Louis said people need to understand that the disparity study highlights the discrimination in city contracting work, and it helps the city reduce unfair contracting practices.
“We just do not have a DEI program; we have a program that is remedying past effects of discrimination,” she said.
Spencer said last month that she was worried that if the city continued with the minority and women-led contracting program, it might lose federal assistance for pending requests from the Army Corps of Engineers to help with tornado debris removal, public assistance through FEMA and federal help with Community Development Block Grants. However, she is confident that with the disparity study and the legal recommendations that “making it project specific, is the path that we feel has the strongest standing and balances the risks with the very necessary work that we need to do to make our community more equitable, in a general sense.”
Construction company advocacy groups are in agreement with Spencer and said they will defend the program on every level, if necessary.
“We believe it's the right thing to do to move diversity forward in our community,” El Amin said.
