Discrimination is a two-way street.
Montana has paid $485,000 to settle claims that a program meant to boost the number of highway contracts going to disadvantaged businesses illegally discriminated against a construction company for having rich, white male owners.
Billings-based Mountain West Holding Co. sued the state in 2013 after transportation officials set a goal to hire disadvantaged businesses on a little more than a quarter of all state highway projects between 2012 and 2014.
Company lawyers said that caused Mountain West to lose out on some contract bids, and was a violation of the federal Civil Rights Act’s prohibition on racial discrimination in programs receiving federal financial assistance.
The state’s attorneys said the disadvantaged business enterprise program was “race-neutral,” and that some businesses in the program are owned by white men. They also noted that Mountain West’s already dominant market share in state highway projects actually increased from 2012-2014.
The $485,000 settlement was reached just days before the case had been set to go to trial on Feb. 26.
“We thought that we had some potential liability and that’s why we ended up settling,” said Dave Ohler, chief counsel for the Montana Department of Transportation.
A person who answered the phone at Mountain West on Wednesday said the company did not have an immediate comment.
All states must have a disadvantaged business enterprise program in order to receive federal highway funding. The program covers small businesses owned by “socially or economically disadvantaged” individuals, including minorities, females and people worth less than $1.3 million.
Of the 105 companies in the Montana program from 2012-2014, eight were owned by white men, according to state attorneys. Mountain West did not qualify.