State Settles Anti-Bias Lawsuits
Contractor accused of discrimination will get $360,000 payment
By Beth Mollard
The State of Ohio has agreed to pay Kirk Williams Co., Inc. $360,000 in settlement of several lawsuits filed by the local heating and air conditioning company over the issue of minority hiring.
Kirk Williams, with offices on Home Road, sued after the state in 1987 and 1988 refused to allow the company to bid on state contracts. State Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinator Gilbert S. Price contended the company had violated affirmative action requirements to hire minorities and women.
In June 1987, the state refused to issue the company a certificate of compliance for minority hiring, which is necessary for all building contractors to do business with the state. In June 1988, the Department of Administrative Services formally ruled that Kirk Williams could not bid on state contracts.
Kirk Williams filed four lawsuits against the state and several of its officials. All four cases are settled by the agreement.
In additional to paying the company, the state agreed to grant Kirk Williams a certificate of compliance. The agreement also calls for each party to pay its own legal expenses.
James R. Havens, attorney for Kirk Williams, said he believes that as a result of the case, the state will no longer deny certificates of compliance to companies as a way of forcing them to adhere to minority hiring requirements.
Havens said $300,000 of the settlement was money the state owed the company for work it had performed at the Warren Correctional Facility in Lebanon, Ohio, near Cincinnati starting in April 1987. The state had held up payment since mid-1988.
The remainder of the settlement was compensation to the company for a $1.2 million contract the state had initially awarded the company after it had made the low bid for heating, ventilating and air conditioning work for Ohio State University's Clinical Medical Services Facility. The facility is a four-story addition and renovation of the east wing of University Hospitals' Doan Hall.
Because of the dispute over minority hiring, the state awarded the contract to the second lowest bidder, Havens said. Kirk Williams had sued the state for $1.4 million in actual and $1 million in punitive damages over the OSU contract.
He said the company received a relatively small settlement from the state for loss of that contract because state law allows contractors to recover in court only out-of-pocket costs.
Kirk Williams is the only company ever to be prohibited com bidding on state contracts because it had not met minority hiring goals, according to attorneys.
Both sides originally agreed to a settlement in early June. According to Havens, settlement documents were being processed at the time Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Patrick M. McGrath issued a decision in the case. Havens' office then waited to receive payment from the state before moving to dismiss the case, according to James K. "JK" Williams, company secretary. The judge's decision was handed down on June 25 and the motion to dismiss was filed on July 5.
A representative of the state attorney general said the decision has no legal effect because the case wad dismissed as a result of the settlement. But Havens said the judge's decision affirmed his client's position.
McGrath said no judgment entry has been filed in the case, which means the state cannot appeal. His decision will not be published in legal journals.
However, McGrath said his decision can still be used as precedent by attorneys handling similar cases. "With respect to the issues of these two parties, the court made a substantive ruling that the Kirk Williams Co. demonstrated good faith."
In his decision, the judge said that Kirk Williams had shown a good-faith effort to comply with affirmative action requirements by actively attempting to recruit minorities and women.
The judge pointed out that the state had made no attempt to present evidence about the pool of minority sheet metal workers available for hire. Nor did the state present any evidence about the hiring and recruiting practices of Kirk Williams.
Instead, the state relied on reports that showed the company had an insufficient number of minority and women workers, the judge said.
The state required that companies in the building trades should have a work force that is 10 percent minority and 6.9 percent female. The company had hired some minority and female workers but consistently fell below the state requirements, according to the court ruling.
The judge said the company had taken several steps that showed it acted in good faith. It participated in an apprenticeship program specifically seeking minority and female workers. It recruited non-union minority and female workers. And it took extra measures to retain those workers who were hired.