Anti-affirmative action sentiment takes toll.

L.A. COUNTY - Many Southland minority business owners report their sales volume dropped dramatically in recent months, and they blame widespread anti-affirmative action sentiment.

The flow of requests for proposals (RFPs) for subcontracting work has slowed to a trickle, several minority-owned firms reported. Most of those RFPs had been coming from large private-sector prime contractors, which until recently were encouraged by all levels of government to subcontract work out to minority-owned businesses.

But a wave of anti-affirmative action sentiment has been sweeping the state since last June, when Gov. Pete Wilson signed an executive order seeking to end affirmative action policies within the state government.

Since then, affirmative action advisory committees at most California state agencies have been either drastically cut back or eliminated altogether, according to sources.

"With that directive, (Gov. Wilson) was telling his managers they no longer had to enforce affirmative action. Now it's filtering down from the governor's office to the department heads and down to the field offices. They're saying, 'You don't have to look at (the affirmative action) issue any more,'" said Paul Suzuki, former president of the Asian Business Association and partner at Suzuki & Ito Partners, a law firm in downtown Los Angeles.

Ava Donor, president of City of Commerce-based Easco Inc., an engineering drafting firm, said the number of RFPs her firm has received in recent months has slowed to a trickle compared with the past. "If I received 10 (RFPs) each week before, I'm receiving only one each week now," she lamented.

Bill Yang, a principal at engineering firm William Yang & Associates in Burbank, reported a similar, though less dramatic, drop. "We're probably getting about 30 percent less RFPs now, compared with before Gov. Wilson's executive order," he said.

Construction hit hardest

Within the minority-owned business community, construction-related subcontractors are being hit hardest by the drop in RFPs, according to sources.

For example, Tutor-Saliba Corp., L.A. County's largest construction company based on 1994 billings, was cited by one business owner as a firm whose RFPs to minority-owned firms have dropped off considerably in recent months. Tutor-Saliba President Ronald Tutor had no comment when asked if his company's affirmative action policy has changed in recent months.

At the other end of the spectrum, large construction firms such as Keller Construction Co. Ltd. of El Monte, Turner Construction of New York and San Francisco-based Swinerton & Walberg were cited as companies that have continued to strongly promote their own affirmative action policies, even in the face of Gov. Wilson's executive order.

"Most of your major (construction firms) are really trying to fulfill their affirmative action goals, because they have a national presence. But for companies that are just in California, they're pretty much yielding to public sentiment here," explained Lynne Joy Rogers, director of the Los Angeles Urban League Business Development Center.

Another group hit hard by the drop in RFPs is environmental subcontractors, according to sources. Once again, some prime contractors in this sector continue to reach out to minority-owned subcontractors, while others have become less active in promoting affirmative action, sources said.

San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp. was mentioned by one minority-owned business president as a contractor that continues to send RFPs to minority-owned businesses, while Pasadena-based Parsons Corp. has made less of an effort, the source said.

Parsons spokeswoman Jamie Brown denied that her employer has made any recent changes in its affirmative action policy.

"There has been no change to the Parsons Corp.'s affirmative action policies and practices. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply not true," she asserted in a written statement.

New attitude

Despite Gov. Wilson's executive order, there is still a state law on the books requiring that minority- and women-owned businesses be included in major public works projects, stressed Rogers of the L.A. Urban League. Still, she noted, many prime contractors' attitudes toward the law have shifted noticeably in the 10 months since Gov. Wilson's executive order.

"The (state) law isn't being enforced," she said. "There's an attitude because of the anti-affirmative action (sentiment) that people don't have to make an outreach effort anymore."

Meanwhile, Ronnie Jones, an African American and executive vice president of Tumohr Construction Co. in Inglewood, expressed his view that attitudes really haven't changed all that much since Gov. Wilson's executive order. Instead, he said, the order is just an excuse for prime contractors to do what they've wanted to do all along.

"I think this anti-affirmative action initiated by the governor empowers these companies to do what they wanted to do anyway (i.e. stop reaching out to minority-owned businesses). It's really just back to business as usual," he said.