The Baltimore Board of Estimates yesterday awarded a $1.8 million contract to a Head Start provider whose level of minority involvement was 30 times below the city’s recommended target.

While extreme, this is not uncommon. The failure by vendors to meet so-called “participation goals” designed to make sure that non-white and women-run businesses are not left out of government contracting is a routine occurrence.

And just as routinely, the gap rarely merits comment from the city’s three top elected officials – Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young and Comptroller Joan M. Pratt – who sit on the spending board and dole out what amounts to the meat and potatoes of local government.

Metro Delta Educational Programs, Inc., was awarded Head Start programs in Reservoir Hill and Penn North despite giving only a 1.16% share of the contract to minority and women businesses.

This contrasts with targets of 27% minority and 10% women set on the contract by the Minority and Women’s Business Opportunity Office (MWBOO).

Granting Waivers

Article 5, subtitle 28 of the Baltimore City Code calls on MWBOO to establish and monitor goals for minority (MBE) and women’s (WBE) businesses on city contracts. Missing these goals can be grounds for the Board of Estimates to reject a prime contractor’s bid.

But many contracts falling short of minority goals sail through the bidding process. Yesterday, for example, 18 contracts were brought before the board with this notation: “MWBOO granted a waiver.” All were approved by the board.

Instead of setting specific targets, the city increasingly follows the practice of asking contractors, especially developers working on community projects, to sign a letter pledging to comply with minority enterprise goals.

This was done last week with the Andrew Klein family, which plans to build a ShopRite supermarket in predominately-black Howard Park.

In other instances, minority contractors themselves ask for the targets to be dropped so they can bid as prime contractors.

While there are no hard and fast patterns, minority goals are most frequently met in construction projects such as road paving. They are least likely to be achieved on bids involving human services, consulting and proprietary software.

In the case of Metro Delta, the provider asserted that 86% of the items in its Head Start program were “proprietary and non-segmentable,” making participation by minority- and women-owned companies problematic.

The company ran into additional troubles when one of its subcontractors was not certified by the city and another ran afoul of state tax authorities.

Mayor’s Campaign Supporters

In other matters, the board yesterday approved about $15 million in spending. The Brew found four contracts awarded to firms that contributed to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s reelection campaign.

Here is a summary of the board’s actions:

• $2 million awarded to EA Engineering, Science & Technology to help the city Department of Transportation manage road construction projects – plus $365,699 to provide “on-call” services to the bureau of water and wastewater. The Rawlings-Blake campaign has picked up $3,000 from the Hunt Valley firm.

• $3,064,000 to E. Pikounis Construction Co. for the Clifton Park Recreation Center. The company gave $250 for the mayor’s reelection.

• $344,214 to KCI Technologies to provide environmental monitoring for the bureau of water and wastewater. The company kicked $4,000 into the mayor’s coffers.

• a $178,750 add-on to a $4,997,010 contract to R. E. Harrington Plumbing & Heating for “water appurtenance installations” for the bureau of water and wastewater. Harrington wrote a $4,000 check to the SRB campaign.

(NOTE: Rawlings-Blake voted to approve all four contracts. City Council President Young abstained on the Harrington, KCI and EA road contract. Comptroller Pratt abstained from the Pikounis and EA water contract.)

• $1,480,697 to Patton, Harris, Rust & Associates to provide engineering services to the bureau of water and wastewater for its Herring Run replacement sewer interceptor. The company did not contribute to the mayor’s reelection – or at least not through its corporate name.

• $1,759,327 to Baltimore Health Care Access to provide medical services for children up to age 19 and $3,293,542 to serve high-risk and hard-to-reach Medicaid-eligible residents. The services for the latter contract are described as “complaint resolution, consumer education, assistance with application for medical assistance programs and client linkages to relevant community program/services.”

These contracts were granted a waiver on minority participation by MWBOO.

• $1,536,150 to Overlea Caterers to operate food services for the Eating Together in Baltimore program for another year. The caterer was awarded the same amount last year.

• $324,801 to AIDS Interfaith Residential Services to provide direct services “to 10 low-income residents at the Don Miller House, a certified adult residential care facility.” The contract was granted a waiver by MWBOO.

• $200,000 to Servit to provide off-site disaster recovery services for the Baltimore City Circuit Court.

• $158,392 to Pikesville-based Lorenz, Inc., for mowing services for the Department of Parks and Recreation. Last month, Lorenz was awarded $887,939 to mow grass medians. 4-Evergreen Lawn Care (an MBE) and M.R. Fouts Lawn Care (a WBE) shared in the contract.

• $70,000 to Pitney-Bowes for a stamp machine used for the police department’s official mailings to citizens, government agencies and the courts. “Without these funds, the police department’s mail operations will cease,” the board was warned yesterday.