By John Kennedy
The News Service of Florida
Black-owned communications firms sued Governor Charlie Crist on Friday to block a white-led company from landing a lucrative U.S. Census contract aimed at black Floridians.
N-Tersections Communications Group and Steele Communications Group, both from the Tallahassee-area, said the state’s decision to award what they said is a $420,000 contract to Moore/Ketchum Partnership reflects “lingering aspects of discrimination.”
The firms said white-owned companies appear to have been favored in the award since Moore/Ketchum “lacked the plaintiff’s vast depth and varied experiences with respect to service and outreach to the targeted communities.” The Florida Black Chamber of Commerce also is part of the lawsuit.
A Moore/Ketchum subcontractor in the minority-reachout effort, black-owned ESP Media Corp., is led by lobbyist Sean Pittman. But those suing said it was unfair that a minority company was not chosen as a prime contractor.
Chuck Hobbs, the Tallahassee attorney representing the contractors, who also serves as counsel to the state NAACP, said the lawsuit also asks the federal court to determine the status of the state’s One Florida initiative, enacted in 1999 under then-Gov. Jeb Bush. The measure eliminated minority set-asides and affirmative action requirements, but was designed to boost diversity in state contracting.
Those suing, however, said that state contracts with women and minority-owned firms have declined from a high mark of $450 million during the 2002 budget year, when Bush was governor, to $100 million last year under Crist.
“We’re also asking the court to declare what is the law in the state of Florida regarding minority contractors?” Hobbs said. “Understanding that spending has gone down?the question is, `is One Florida still the law in the state of Florida?'”
He said the lawsuit alleges “those measures Gov. Bush enacted?are not being fully adhered to by this administration.” The federal court is being asked to permanently block the contract award for the census public-awareness campaign, and order the bid process reopened.
Sterling Ivey, a Crist spokesman, said Friday, “We are reviewing the legal merits of the complaint and options that are available to us.”
Terrie Ard, with Tallahassee’s Moore Consulting Group, said ESP Media is expected to complete 85 percent of the awareness campaign aimed at black Floridians. Moore has combined with Ketchum, the international public relations firm, in submitting the winning bid in a pair of categories focused on assuring that black Floridians are accurately counted in this year’s census.
The award already prompted questions from the Florida Legislative Black Caucus, which seemed generally satisfied when told during a meeting with the governor’s office that ESP Media was part of the campaign team.
The NAACP finished seventh among firms submitting bids in one black-oriented category and eighth in another. N-Tersections Communications’s scores earned it eighth and ninth-place finishes behind Moore/Ketchum.
There were 12 categories of specialized ethnic and population groups that the governor’s office is seeking to focus on with the awareness campaign. Unsuccessful firms in six categories last month filed intentions to protest the award, but only one challenge is ongoing, Ivey said.
Ron Sachs Communications was the top-ranking company for American Indians, Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders and migrant farm workers. Moore/Ketchum was selected for blacks, college and university students, part-time residents and rural Floridians.
The Florida Association of Broadcasters was the highest-ranked firm in the category to bring the homeless onto census rolls. Tallahassee’s Salter-Mitchell was picked to reach-out to disabled Floridians.
MGSCOMM, a Miami-based marketing, communications company, was the winning bid to expand census awareness in Florida’s Hispanic community.
