In First Forum, Mayoral Contendors Slam Bloombergs Minority and Women Business Policy

The six 2013 New York City mayoral candidates appeared together on stage for the first time this afternoon at a forum sponsored by City & State - and were largely in agreement that the Bloomberg administration had failed in its efforts to provide more city contracting opportunities to women and minority-owned businesses. The forum was part of a morning-long series of panels on MWBE (Minority and Women Business Enterprise) issues in New York City, which also included opening remarks by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Sitting side-by-side in a packed auditorium at New York University, the rivals often clapped for one another, though they did have some minor policy disagreements. In the forum's most poignant moments, debate moderator David Chen, the City Hall bureau chief for the New York Times, prodded the various candidates to assign a letter grade to Bloomberg's efforts to give more contracting opportunities to MWBEs. All the candidates agreed that Local Law 129, passed in 2005 to provide those businesses with more city contracts, had not been implemented particularly well, and had not gone far enough, but differed in the degree of their critiques. Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, historically strong critics of the mayor, both gave Bloomberg F's. Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave Bloomberg, a close ally, a "C or C-minus," after some prompting from Chen for a specific grade. Tom Allon, the president of Manhattan Media (which owns City & State) gave the mayor a B-minus for effort and a C-minus for the oversall results. Meanwhile, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, though critical of Bloomberg, refused to assign a grade, as did ex-Comptroller Bill Thompson, who simply said the administration's MWBE efforts were "failing." To read the full article at City and State [click here. ](http://www.cityandstateny.com/forum-nyc-mayoral-contenders-slam-bloombergs-mwbe-policy-job-offers/)