Disabled Veterans Program Unscathed : Business: Preference in awarding of contracts is not targeted, despite criticism.
Disabled veterans have largely been immune to the attacks leveled at affirmative action programs, yet in California they have been beneficiaries of such programs.
And business people and state officials alike complain that inserting disabled veterans into the state’s affirmative action contracting program has exacerbated problems with it.
In 1989, one year after the Legislature determined that the state must try to give at least 15% of its contracting dollars to minorities and 5% to women, lawmakers added an additional goal--awarding at least 3% of all state contracting dollars to disabled-veteran-owned enterprises.
But unlike the other goals, the new one was an arbitrary figure, not based on the number of disabled veteran businesses available for state contracts. At the time, officials estimated less then 100 such businesses existed.
Even today, when the number of certified disabled veteran businesses has risen to 604, contractors complain that with thousands of state contracts being issued, the 3% goal is unrealistic.
“There is a very small number of such businesses that exist in California,” Steven A. Olsen, chief deputy director of the Department of General Services, testified in May to a legislative committee. As a result, “we are working with a thin pool of potential bidders for state contracting.”
The state has never come close to meeting its goal. In 1993-94, only 1.2% of its contracts went to disabled veterans.
Yet, contractors are disqualified if they fail to line up disabled subcontractors, even if they meet goals for women and minorities. As a result of the scarcity of disabled businesses, critics say that many contractors don’t even try to achieve affirmative action goals. Instead, they make “a good-faith effort” to hire the three disadvantaged groups, a procedure that allows them to qualify as bidders without having to meet goals.
The disabled veteran goal is “an inhibitor for making the program work,” said one Asian American businessman.
But James Ramos, a disabled Army veteran who operates a technical consulting business, said the disabled veteran goal was established for a different purpose from the other goals. He said it was designed to encourage veterans to become business people and not to end discrimination.
“Veterans programs are a special gift by a grateful Legislature for having been placed in harm’s way,” he said. “We don’t have to show that we’ve had past discrimination.”
He said California is the only state that has a disabled veteran contracting goal, and the increase in the number of certified disabled-veteran-owned businesses has shown its effectiveness.
Disabled veterans are the only group certified by the state. The contractors must show, among other things, that they have at least a 10% disability.
Ramos, who also operates the Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Network, said the veterans as a group have not taken a position on the various proposals to eliminate affirmative action programs because those proposals do not affect the disabled veterans.
“It’s not our issue,” he said. “Some of our constituents feel ‘don’t shake the boat. . . . Nobody is putting us as risk.’ ”
Gov. Pete Wilson in his battle against affirmative action has studiously avoided attacking the veterans. “They served their country, and he believes they are entitled to some kind of compensation from the taxpayers,” said Wilson spokesman Paul Kranhold.
