MBE2012
ODOT
continued from page 3
Roy Weedman, owner of Bud Construction
–not a certified DBE company — who
describes how, as a white man, he has no
access to contracts because he is “not Black
or Asian.”
Weedman goes on to describe how he has
essentially done a significant amount of Salt
& Pepper’s work, including managing and
supervising the trucking subcontract, as
well as leasing his own trucks to Salt &
Pepper to do the work.
Weedman talks about how contractors
“have found a loophole” to falsely inflate
their minority participation percentages
specifically in trucking and flagging opera-
tions.
In its findings, the FHA said Salt &
Pepper “did not manage and supervise the
trucking operation for which it was respon-
sible; did not provide at least one of its own
trucks on the contract; and used a non-DBE
to manage the entire trucking operation.”
But the FHA also sketches out deliberate-
ly illegal behavior involving two other com-
panies as well.
“Further, the facts support a finding that
Emery & Sons, Bud Construction and Salt
& Pepper contrived a relationship for the
purpose of meeting the contract goal,” the
findings say. “As a result, ODOT inappro-
priately counted the value of the trucking
services provided by DBE Salt & Pepper
toward the DBE contract goal.”
Documents show Salt & Pepper has for
years been counted as a DBE in contracts
with ODOT, the City of Portland,
METRO, and TriMet.
“Process Needed to Ensure Completeness
and Accuracy,” what appears to be a signif-
icant oversight appears.
“For example, we found that one business
certified as an ESB was later found ineligi-
ble,” the audit says. However, the certifica-
tion was kept open for several years prior to
concerns about fraud in the system, the state
OMWESB is doing a good job.
“They went and did some double-check-
ing of work of the certification process, and
it was their findings that the office of
OMWESB did do appropriate double check
or verification processes,” she said. “This
office is not just rubber-stamping. They
are verifying the applications’ eligibili-
ty.”
While Brown said the audit’s recom-
mendations for way to tighten up their
operations are only voluntary, she
described a three-point plan her office
has put in place to encourage compli-
ance, including: follow-up audits; and
meetings with bureau and agency heads
as well as meetings with the Joint
Committee on Legislative Audits and
Information
Management
&
Technology.
“I have no hammer – the only hammer I
have is my bully pulpit,” she said. “We real-
ly think that these three things with the joint
legislative audits committee, meeting with
agency directors or division heads, and the
follow-up audits, that we are seeing greater
compliance in terms of recommendations.”
Documents show Salt &
Pepper has for years been
counted as a DBE in
contracts with ODOT, the City
of Portland, METRO, and
TriMet
It is the second time in recent weeks
that NAMC-O has seen some response
for official complaints it has filed.
Two weeks ago, the Oregon
Secretary of State’s Office released an
audit of the OMWESB certification
process that found the small staff over-
burdened, with inadequate resources
and poor organization that has caused
a backlog of DBE requests – even as
Gov. John Kitzhaber has called for
more companies to apply for certification.
The audit stopped well short of what
NAMC-O called for in its request for the
investigation, focusing not on DBE compli-
ance issues, but rather on how certifications
are handed out.
In one section of the audit, called
final closure without any explanation in the
application file.”
Salt & Pepper Trucking was one of 14
companies specifically named as potentially
defrauding the certification process.
Secretary of State Kate Brown told The
Skanner News that, despite NAMC-O’s
Hair
continued from page 7
Well what resources are there out there for
Black owned beauty suppliers, one may
ask? Well, the Black Owned Beauty Supply
Association, which is supposed to be one of
the resources for Black owned beauty sup-
pliers, advertises that it’s a premier national
organization that provides African-
Americans the platform to demonstrate
competitive leadership in the $9 billion
Black hair care and cosmetic industry
nationwide and nationally. However when
trying to contact them to find out what help
they give suppliers, the website advertised a
number that was disconnected and they
never returned emails. When asked about
the association, White said, “it is a joke”
and Johnson said she has never contacted
them, but heard they were not a reliable
resource.
Johnson said that not only is hair hard to
get, but so are certain hair product lines that
cater to women with natural hair or chemi-
cally treated hair. She said she has been try-
ing to get a certain brand in her
store for years, but they refuse to
let her carry it.
White said the same thing, he
said he has tried to get certain
popular Black hair care lines but
they will not let him carry it either
because he is too close to one of
their major distributors or they
want him to buy thousands of dol-
lars in product, which is unrealis-
tic for his store’s size.
Some of the top Black owned hair care
companies are Dudley Beauty Corp.,
Carol’s Daughter, Luster Inc., and Kimba
Hair Care.
Jada Robinson, said she spends more than
$100 a month on hair and said she prefers to
get her hair products at the salon because, “I
feel that there is a large mark up on products
at the hair places that are not owned by
Black people. Since there is a huge demand
and Black people will always care about
their appearance and getting their ‘Hair
Did,’ they can continue to charge a lot.”
While many would prefer to shop at beau-
ty supply stores, some feel that they only
Not only is hair hard to get,
but so are certain hair
product lines that cater to
women with natural hair or
chemically treated hair
Page 10 • Minority Business Enterprise • The Portland Skanner • September 26, 2012
cater to their customers buying hair and not
maintaining their own. “Beauty supply
stores certainly don’t cater to them. But,
there’s no need to because natural hair, by
See HAIR on page 11