KCMO City Council moves to repeal, replace 45-year-old minority, women's business program

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.

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After 45 minutes in closed session, the Kansas City, Missouri, Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee advanced two ordinances with a do-pass recommendation that dismantle the existing Minority and Women Business Enterprise Program and launch a new program centered around small businesses.

Both ordinances are expected to go before the full city council Thursday, but city leaders stressed they're not giving up on the premise of the program.

“The change is a replacement, not an elimination,” the city said in an email announcing the committee’s vote. “The City's commitment to opening its contracts to small and local businesses will continue without interruption under the new program.”

The city’s press release said “the ordinances are likely to be approved.”

Ordinance No. 260690 would terminate the existing program, which started in 1981, while Ordinance No. 260692 would enact a new small business program in a repeal-and-replace strategy to reform the city’s contracting process.

All nine people who testified before the committee Tuesday voiced support for the program, including Joe Davis.

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"The emphasis I wanted to stress is: don't make any snap decisions,” he said. “Make sure the program is right because we're impacting families, jobs, economic opportunity, and that's what we're all about.”

Davis — who serves as the CEO of Custom Engineering, a small firm headquartered in Independence — testified in support of the program. His company has worked on major projects, including the airport and streetcar, opportunities he said would not have been possible without the MWBE program.

"If we did not have a program, we may not have had the opportunity to participate because the much larger firms can, of course, do all that work,” Davis said. “What the city wanted to do is ... make sure everybody's getting a fair shot.”

City officials said that ambition will not change. A disparity study the city released recommended 16 changes, including replacing the MWBE program with a small business-focused program — which is what Kansas City intends to do.

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Councilmember Johnathan Duncan said outside pressure simply accelerated a process already underway.

“There's an opportunity for us to continue to have the impact for our small businesses by uplifting them while still remaining compliant with the directives and the new laws and the disparity study that we've released," Duncan said. "... This just sped up our timeline and made it so that we had to create a bridge program on our toes.”

Creating a ‘stopgap’

Councilmember Andrea Bough, who chairs the Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee, vowed the city would continue finding ways to support these programs despite outside pressure.

"Despite the efforts of those in our own state, in Jeff City and DC, we are going to continue to find ways to have these programs continue,” she said. “They may throw arrows, but we are going to keep dodging them as much as we can."

Duncan, a combat veteran, framed the committee's move as a strategic response rather than a retreat.

"We're under attack from the federal government; we're under attack from the state,” he said. “As a combat veteran, I'll say that sometimes when you're responding to attack, it's not always wise to charge in. Sometimes you’ve got to pivot, and that's exactly what we're doing here.”

If approved Thursday by the full council, City Manager Mario Vasquez’s office would have 30 days “to develop new business enterprise and report back on the implementation of said programs.”

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The goal is to launch the new program three months from council approval with input from stakeholders and feedback from the 2026 Disparity Study — including a more data-driven approach, more prompt payments, the unbundling of large contracts to give smaller firms a better chance, improved communication and streamlined processes.

While the new program is being developed, the city would not require new projects or contracts to adhere to MWBE goals, including projects advertised but not yet awarded.

Existing contracts do not have to be modified.

Council action doesn’t end lawsuit

Terminating the program undercuts, at least in part, a lawsuit Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed against the city in late July, alleging that the existing MWBE program amounts to “blatant race‑ and sex‑based discrimination in public contracting.”

Hanaway sought an injunction to halt the program Monday in federal court, but the city council said the program was due for modifications anyway on the heels of the disparity study, which recommended transitioning away from quotas for MWBE participation in favor of aspirational goals.

But Mayor Quinton Lucas sharply criticized the attorney general's role in forcing the city's hand.

"Frankly, I don't think the attorney general of Missouri has anything else politically to do,” he said after the vote. “It seems she doesn't want to fight human trafficking. She doesn't want to make Missouri safer. She does want to, I think, find ways to marginalize Blacks, women and others. And so that's why we're here today.”

Reflecting on the broader significance of the committee's action, Lucas said, "In terms of the steps taken, it is a repeal of a generations-old program in Kansas City. I think that's in many ways heartbreaking.”

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Hanaway’s office acknowledged the city council action in a statement Tuesday afternoon to KSHB 41. However, the response also confirmed the lawsuit, which seeks damages for contractors who allege the policy cost them money, will continue.

“The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is encouraged to see Kansas City considering steps to address race- and sex‑based discrimination in its contracting practices,” a spokesperson with Hanaway’s office wrote in an emailed statement. “Our litigation will continue regardless of the City’s chosen approach.”

In its place, the city plans to establish Local Business Enterprise, Local Small Business Enterprise and Emerging Business Enterprise programs.

“The program sets a citywide annual goal of participation by certified local and small businesses,” the city said. “It preserves mentor-protégé and joint venture opportunities, maintains a public certification directory through the Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Department, and continues small business development services including bonding, financing, and technical assistance. Certified firms must be headquartered or maintain a real and substantial presence in the Kansas City metropolitan area.”

This story was reported on-air by a journalist; AI assisted with one section of the web report. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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