“Diversity” Has Become April Fool-Worthy

Rewarding some people and punishing others because of their race, ethnicity, or gender has always been obnoxious, morally objectionable, and even on occasion illegal, but now it is so entrenched and encrusted with rules administered and protected by political apparatchiks and civil service bureaucrats that often as not it is actually absurd, beyond the reach of parody or satire.

The Boston Herald reports such an episode today involving a prominent Boston business woman whose firm lost a lucrative contract with the state lottery commission because it ran afoul of “diversity” rules. If I summarized what happened you wouldn’t believe me, and so I’m just going to quote a bunch of the article. You can look it up if you still don’t believe me.

The Patrick administration is defending the award of the $5 million Lottery contract to Connelly Partners, which is not owned by a woman or a minority but got credit for doling out a paltry $12,000 subcontract to a woman-owned vendor.

The losing bidder, Judy Habib, CEO of KHJ Brand Activation, got the highest points for cost and presentation but scored lower because her firm didn’t promise to partner with a minority or woman-owned firm for subcontract work.

Habib is challenging the contract award because she says the state’s diversity plan and the Lottery, under 
Treasurer Steven Grossman, failed to give her credit for running a woman-owned business.

Yes, in case you were wondering, that is the same Steven Grossman who was Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1997–1999 and remains one of the biggest Democratic money men. Now, back to our unbelievable story:

Lottery and Patrick administration officials say Habib’s firm lost because it failed to fill out a form promising to give a small piece of the contract to a woman- or minority-owned firm. Habib says she didn’t fill it out because her firm is already certified as a woman-owned business and believed she would get credit for that under the state’s diversity plan.

“There was no mistake here,” said Beth Bresnahan, the Lottery’s director of marketing and communications. “We scored it and awarded it accordingly. They (KHJ) made the assumption they were getting points for being a woman-owned business.”

A spokeswoman for the Patrick administration said the agency is standing by the Lottery’s contract decision even though Gov. Deval Patrick has championed diversity and signed an executive order in 2005 reinforcing that the state agencies give preference to minority- and women-owned businesses when awarding large contracts.

“All businesses seeking to be a vendor to the commonwealth must complete a Supplier Diversity Plan,” said Alex Zaroulis, spokeswoman for the Department of Administration and Finance. “KHJ did not submit a supplier diversity plan and therefore scored lower than the firm that was selected by the Lottery which did fulfill all the bidding requirements for the Lottery contract.”

You can’t make this stuff up. Unfortunately, Democrats can, and do.