Connerly denies preferential treatment
Report claims UC Regent used federal minority contracts
By Ann Bancroft
The Associated Press
SACRAMENTO — University of California Regent Ward Connerly, an
outspoken opponent of affirmative action, denied Monday he
benefited from minority preferences while contracting with the
Energy Commission.
Connerly, who is African American, has appeared on national
television and news magazines calling for an end to race-based
affirmative action programs in university admissions and public
contracting and hiring.
He is a close ally of Gov. Pete Wilson, whose opposition to
affirmative action is expected to be a key issue in his
presidential campaign.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday that Connerly’s
Sacramento consulting firm received more than $1 million in state
business during the past six years by signing up as a minority
contractor.
"I have never gone out of my way to certify as a minority
contractor," insisted Connerly. "My only point is, if I am
benefiting to the tune of $1 million as they’re saying, why am I
calling for the end of the program?"
Connerly conceded that since 1988, when state agencies were
required to make efforts to let 15 percent of all contracts to
minority-owned businesses, he began checking the "yes" box Â
certifying that his firm is owned by a minority  on Energy
Commission contracts he won for his client, California Building
Officials.
His 17-employee firm also administers federal Community
Development Block Grants, and 15 communities that hired Connerly
and Associates in the past two years told regulators they complied
with affirmative action requirements by hiring a minority-owned
firm.
Although Connerly’s firm is owned in equal partnership with his
wife, who is white, he said his attorney advised him he could claim
51 percent ownership for purposes of the contract bid forms. State
law requires that 51 percent must be owned by a minority to certify
as a minority-owned firm.
At the same time, Connerly said, he declined to include Connerly
& Associates on a list of the Energy Commission’s certified
minority contractors.
Had he not designated his firm as minority-owned on the contract
bids, Connerly said, he would have "had to find a minority to turn
over 15 percent of a contract which has an 8 percent profit at
best."
"Since I am a minority  I don’t deny that  I don’t
go out and find another minority," Connerly said.
The non-profit association of city and county building officials
"had been receiving contracts with the Energy Commission since 1979
with no reference at all to the race or ethnicity of our firm,"
Connerly said. "Those contracts were flowing for eight years prior
(to his designating his firm as minority-owned), and I had nothing
to do with it."
Since the minority certification program began, Connerly’s firm
won Energy Commission contracts for the building officials
association for $1.1. million in 1989, for $105,227 in 1992 and for
$35,000 in 1994, according to state records.
Connerly said the suggestion that he is being hypocritical in
his opposition to affirmative action so angers him that he’ll
refuse to fill out the form relating to minority contracting goals
when the contract renewal comes up next week.
"If you don’t fill out the form you are prohibited from
bidding," he explained. "We’re going to refuse to fill out the
form, force the Energy Commission to reject us, and we’re going to
take them to court, because I’m really tired of this crap,"
Connerly said.
Wilson spokesman Paul Kranhold said the governor "thinks
(Connerly’s) motives are pure, and that he makes a good case for
ending racial and gender-based preferences in state
government."