How firm beat city set-aside program.

Publication: Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Chicago Tribune

Jan. 27--The boldly striped red and white cement trucks have long been a common sight in Chicago, pouring concrete for miles of curbs and sidewalks as well as for skyscrapers, Comiskey Park and Navy Pier.

The trucks have brought their owners, Ozinga Bros. Inc., tens of millions of dollars in city contracts and launched members of the family-owned firm to noted positions in local political and charitable circles.

But behind the scenes, documents and interviews show, the Ozinga firm repeatedly dodged city rules and exploited an affirmative-action program to win lucrative contracts.

Now Ozinga trucks pour concrete for the city under an unusual deal: The city has exempted the company from virtually all minority set-aside requirements.

As City Hall wrestles with scandals in its programs to lift minority- and women-owned businesses, the Ozingas provide a case study in how a white-owned company can work the system--and win.

The company's actions include creating a spinoff concrete firm in the 1980s to win city business reserved exclusively for minority-owned companies. Martin, Richard and James Ozinga--all white men--enlisted the help of two African-American churches in Chicago's depressed South Side, giving nine church members 51 percent ownership to technically meet the city's rules.

But two of the African-American church members now say the spinoff company was bogus and that minorities had little control of the business. "It was a classic front," church member Henry Washington says.

Ozinga Bros., an 800-employee firm based in Orland Park, denies any wrongdoing, saying it has always followed the rules and been open about its business practices.

Regarding allegations that the company once operated a front, Martin Ozinga, the president of Ozinga Bros., says, "I'm extremely disappointed that people feel that there was something less than a very noble effort being put forth there."

When the Ozingas' business venture with the churchgoers did not work out, the Ozingas replaced them in the early 1990s with an African-American, a Cuban-American and a native of Indonesia.

This time, with the business-savvy Indonesian-American as president, the spinoff won an $11 million city contract that was open to minorities and non-minorities alike--including the white-owned Ozinga Bros.

The Indonesian-American, Bing Goei, recalls that Martin Ozinga was...

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