Citing terms of the Cincinnati Small Business Enterprise Program, City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. is defending validity of a contract awarded to a firm acting as a cement and ready mixed concrete distributor on a major public/private development
Sources: Cincinnati City Manager Martin Dohoney, Jr.; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Cincinnati Branch
Citing terms of the Cincinnati Small Business Enterprise Program, City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. is defending validity of a contract awarded to a firm acting as a cement and ready mixed concrete distributor on a major public/private development. He asserts in a recent memo that Northside Construction Supply performed a commercially useful function as a subcontractor for 2009 utility, infrastructure and parking garage concrete work at The Banks, a commercial and residential development–flanked by Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ballpark–along the Ohio River.
In addition to SBE certification, Dohoney contends, Northside qualifications for Banks work included a distributor’s agreement with a cement supplier; plus, in a recent phase, it sold ready mixed directly to the concrete contractor, using outside trucking services for deliveries. An SBE is considered to perform a commercially useful function when it is responsible for the execution of a distinct element of a contract and carries out its responsibility by performing, managing and supervising the work involved, he explains. A business that stocks sufficient quantities of supplies in direct inventory, held for sale or resale, to cover anticipated future demands for the supplies is performing a commercially useful function.
His memo responded to NAACP Cincinnati claims that Northside was functioning as a pass-through business and distorting SBE economic inclusion figures. In an early April media release, the group alleged, Northside is marking up cement by 5 percent or 10 percent and walking away with the cash. This practice is common and legal, but unethical. It undermines the ability for real companies to build capacity. Northside is adding no real value to the Banks Project.