Racial Quotas For Private Sector : Chicago Aldermen Press Bond Firms on Diversity

The Bond Buyer reports:

Underwriters, advisors, and lawyers working on Chicago's bond deals once were expected to simply show up to City Council finance committee meetings. Now they must come prepared to take the "hot seat" and defend their firm's ethnic, racial, and gender diversity.

The city has long met its minority- and women-owned participation goals on bond teams, but council members several years ago began extending their scrutiny to the diversity of professionals working on the deals. They come to the committee meetings armed with data firms are required to provide in their economic disclosure statements under a 2014 ordinance.

The aim is use the city's fiscal muscle on bond deals to promote the hiring and advancement of minorities and women, and council members have since broadened their surveillance to encompass firms' total staff -- which for some banks numbers in the thousands.

"You need [your staff] to consciously reflect the city if you want city business," Alderman Walter Burnett told firms Friday, when the issue was front and center at the finance committee as it considered ordinances authorizing up to $3.5 billion of O'Hare International Airport debt.

Using "muscle" to discriminate against white males. No word yet on when Alderman Walter Burnett will demand Republicans get representation on Chicago's City Council. After all, Republicans are probably 10 to 15 percent of Chicago's voters.