I have taken no position on the financial benefits, or the lack thereof, in the billion-dollar-plus Coliseum plan for the city of Richmond.
I have questioned why it was wrongly reported in an Op-ed in the RTD published on January 6, 2019, that there was “$300 million in contracts reserved for minority-owned businesses.” Though this was attributed to a report prepared by the Wilder School of Gov’t & Public Affairs, this was not in that report.
I ran into Mayor Stoney at a social event this weekend and I asked him about the error, in the presence of a prominent minority legislator. Stoney admitted I was correct. I told him further that a Richmond case, “Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co.” decided by the US Supreme Court called such “set asides” as illegal and unconstitutional.
Why has he not publicly stated this?
Shouldn’t the people be entitled to the FACTS and the TRUTH? Or is this too much to ask of our leaders?