Bush details anti-bias plan

"RACE CONSCIOUSNESS': Gov. Bush seeks to end race-based preferences while promoting minority participation.

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By WILLIAM YARDLEY

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 10, 1999

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday announced sweeping changes to state affirmative action policies, vowing to end race-based preference programs while launching ambitious outreach efforts to increase minority participation at universities and in state contracting.

A year before Florida voters could face a ballot question asking them to eliminate preferences, the popular Republican governor moved to establish a middle ground that would banish preferences but encourage what he called "race consciousness."

"This is not the end of affirmative action," Bush said. "This transcends affirmative action."

With a giant backdrop behind him illuminating a silhouette of a state map filled with multicolored faces and the words "One Florida Initiative," Bush said embracing diversity is crucial to the state's economic future.

On higher education, he wants to guarantee university admissions to the top 20 percent of every high school class in Florida. In contracting, he wants to urge state procurement officers to find qualified minority businesses.

He signed an executive order that bans preferences and discrimination but promotes diversity in all agencies under the governor's control. He proposed other changes through legislation, agency restructuring and gumption.

"You don't need to have laws to make this happen," he said. "You just go do it."

Bush insisted that his wide-ranging proposal was not meant to blunt plans by California businessman Ward Connerly to place an initiative banning affirmative action on next year's ballot. But it already seemed to have an effect by Tuesday evening: Connerly's spokesman offered mild praise.

Kevin Nguyen said Bush deserved "high marks" for encouraging "individual merit" in his educational programs.

"We note that the governor and his staff came to the same conclusion that race preferences are unconstitutional. We credit the governor for taking the state of Florida significantly toward a more colorblind society."

Bush has called Connerly's proposal divisive, but he also said Tuesday that the state's existing preference policies are "constitutionally suspect" and that they have failed to create equal opportunity. He cited court rejections of the policies in some cases along with "minuscule" numbers of minority businesses that shared in the $12.6-billion the state spent on procurement last year.

The governor said educational and economic success for minorities lies not in government-mandated preferences but in early intervention.

For example, he promised programs that would reach into low-performing public schools to help minority students prepare for college.

But regardless of test scores, Bush promised, all high school seniors who graduate in the top 20 percent of their class with the appropriate credits will be guaranteed a place at a state university.

His "Talented 20 program" -- similar to a plan his brother, George W. Bush, helped launch as governor of Texas -- could give 1,200 additional minority students the chance to attend a state university.

University system Chancellor Adam Herbert praised the plan, saying it "acknowledges Florida's past but also connects us to Florida's future."

If minority students go on to become business owners, Bush said they will find a Florida government that seeks out their services rather than overlooks them.

"All key procurement agents across state government will report directly to me, their agency head, the Cabinet and other leadership on the amount of minority business spending for which they are personally responsible," Bush said.

Asked later if such a working method was reminiscent of old-fashioned political bosses, Bush said, "I'm a political boss who wants more minority businesses to sell more goods and services."

Bush declined to offer details on how the performance of "procurement agents" would be judged. He plans to ask the Legislature to change the employees' status so that he can fire them if they do not perform to his liking.

Bush proposed revamping the state's minority business office to streamline certification of minority businesses and act as a matchmaker between the businesses and the state.

But the governor stopped short of the comprehensive changes sought by Connerly in his proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution that would end race- and gender-based preferences in all government contracting, hiring and state university admissions.

Connerly's amendments await approval by the Florida Supreme Court while his campaign plans to collect the more than 435,000 signatures necessary to place the issue on the ballot.

As Bush sought common ground in the emerging affirmative action debate -- and some say tried to groom Florida's political terrain for his brother's presidential campaign next year -- activists on both sides said they would return to their camps and decide how to proceed.

Connerly, who spent part of Tuesday raising money in New York for his California-based American Civil Rights Coalition, could not be reached for comment.

At the coalition's headquarters, spokesman Nguyen said that the drive was still on, and that Connerly would comment this week.

"Part of the problem," Nguyen said, "is we weren't consulted throughout the review process."

Connerly has received much of his initial support from South Florida contractors who say they are frustrated with local government preference programs that set goals for awarding contracts to minorities.

Bush said he was not interested in micromanaging and had no plans to meddle in local governments' affirmative action policies. The governor said local governments should be wary, however, because recent court decisions have overturned race-based policies in the past, including ones in Miami-Dade County.

Several county governments, including Miami-Dade and Leon, have recently adopted pro-affirmative-action resolutions.

Bush has maintained throughout his months-long review that he is not acting to head off Connerly's drive.

"Ward can come or not come," Bush said. "I don't know what the political implications are."

Leon Russell, president of the state NAACP and leader of a pro-affirmative-action amendment drive, said the governor's plans were cause for cautious optimism. But as long as Connerly is still campaigning, Russell said, so would his group, FREE.

"The key issue for us is to come out with a policy that the governor can buy into," Russell said.

Under Bush's plan, state Sen. Daryl Jones, a Miami Democrat, will head an educational task force that will study disparities in funding between low- and high-performing schools. Jones, who plans to file a joint resolution in support of current affirmative action policies, said he liked the Bush proposals.

"I want them implemented quickly and effectively," Jones said. "I want to support those efforts. I want to help him succeed. As long as he maintains his commitment and as long as his motives are pure, then I'm going to be with him."

House Democratic Leader Les Miller of Tampa called on Bush to ask Connerly to end his drive. Miller praised Bush for "taking a positive step toward protecting racial and gender inclusiveness" but expressed concerns about "whether the governor will be able to put this plan into action."

Herb Harmon, campaign manager for Connerly's drive, said he was pleased that Bush took a stand against preferences. "We're not looking for a fight," Harmon said.

Last week, when word of Bush's planned announcement began seeping out, Harmon wondered aloud how the governor would approach the issue.

"If he can please Daryl Jones and he can please us," Harmon said, "he's a genius."

State House Speaker John Thrasher, a close ally of the governor, said Bush was only trying to please all Floridians.

"What he has said to you . . . he believes in very deeply," Thrasher said at the news conference in the Capitol's Cabinet Room.

Said Bush: "This is only the beginning. Florida will become a model of opportunity for the rest of the nation."

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