Except to the extent that the Purchasing Agent with the approval of Council determines otherwise, no contract of the City involving any work upon buildings, roads, sewers or in any way employing members of the construction trades and/or involving the purchase of materials, supplies and equipment shall be awarded unless the specifications for such contract shall provide that at least 15% of the amount of such contract shall be expended for qualified minority owned and/or female owned businesses and/or for the employment of qualified minority local manpower labor force where possible and unless the lowest responsible bidder on such contract shall give satisfactory assurances to the Purchasing Agent of compliance with such specifications.
[Adopted 12-22-1982 by Ord. No. 42-1982 (Sec. 115.091 of the 1979 Codified Ordinances)]
For purposes of this section, the terms minority owned and female owned businesses shall mean a business of which 51% is owned by minority or female members or, in case of a publicly owned business, at least 51% of the stock is owned by minority or female members. Minority members shall mean citizens of the United States who are negroes, hispanics, orientals or who are members of any other group able to demonstrate that their group have been the victims of past discrimination comparable to that suffered by the other designated minority groups. A minority surname or less than 50% minority ancestry shall not be sufficient to qualify a person as a minority group member.
The financing and composition of any individual, partnership, firm, corporation, etc., representing himself, herself, themself or itself to be a minority owned or female owned business shall be disclosed, upon request to Council through its Purchasing Agent. The minority owned and/or female owned share or shares of such business shall be genuine and may not be provided or financed except as a result of an arms length, bona fide loan or other business transaction, nor shall the profits of the business inure to the owners or shareholders of such business on other than a proportional basis.
The Purchasing Agent with the approval of Council is hereby authorized to issue waivers to the requirements of this section in those instances where the bid of a minority owned and/or female owned business is deemed to be unreasonable and where the excess amount of such bid is not attributable to the effects of past discrimination. In addition thereto, the Purchasing Agent with the approval of Council is hereby authorized to extend waivers or to reduce the requirements of this section in those instances where there is a lack of qualified and/or skilled minority owned and/or female owned businesses to bid on a contract where an emergency situation exists and the contract must be let without prior notice to and solicitation of minority owned and/or female owned businesses; and where the nature of the contract is such that would be impractical for the contractor to employ a subcontractor for 15% or more of the contract.
A.
Any person, partnership, firm or corporation who violates any provisions of this section shall, upon conviction before any District Justice, be fined not more than $300 or, in default thereto, imprisoned not more than 90 days. Each day's violation of any of the provisions of this section shall constitute a separate violation hereof.
B.
In addition to the foregoing penalties, any person, partnership, firm or corporation who violates any provision of this section shall be civilly liable to the City for any and all damages and/or losses caused thereby and shall also be liable for any surcharge or penalty as permitted by law.