In 1999 I bid a job for the City Of Chicago it was for a 50' towboat to be used for maintenance on the Sanitary Ship Canal. I submitted the bid for around $500,000.00. I was notified that we were the lowest qualified bidder but we could not be awarded the contract because we were not a minority owned business. The City Of Chicago has mandated by law that all companies awarded contracts for city work must be a minority owned business. So because my business is owned by me a white American I don't qualify.

They gave me a list of minority owned companies that act as go between's. In other words I would technically sell the boat to one of these companies they would ad around $100,000.00 and then sell it to the City Of Chicago. These companies were nothing more than a black guy with a business license and a cell phone. I passed on the whole deal but that's the way Chicago politics works.

Brian