According to Carolina Public Press:
City administrators are unable to tell whether Asheville’s Minority Business Program met its participation goals for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 because the required annual reports for those years have not been completed.
The program seeks to ensure an equal opportunity for minority and women-owned businesses to participate in city construction, procurement and special services contracting.
The annual reports, which the city requires, are meant to “continuously monitor the effectiveness” of the program and are submitted to Asheville City Council along with recommendations for improvements upon their completion, according to the program’s current plan, which was last revised in 2006.
Why do race, ethnicity, and sex need to be considered at all in deciding who gets awarded a contract? It’s good to make sure contracting programs are open to all, that bidding opportunities are widely publicized beforehand, and that no one gets discriminated against because of skin color, national origin, or sex. But that means no preferences because of skin color, etc. either–whether it’s labeled a “set-aside,” a “quota,” or a “goal,” since they all end up amounting to the same thing. Such discrimination is unfair and divisive; it breeds corruption and otherwise costs the taxpayers and businesses money to award a contract to someone other than the lowest bidder; and it’s almost always illegal