Minority Owned Business

Alleging discrimination against blacks, three African American contractors have filed an $800-million civil rights lawsuit against the city of Lynwood and three Latino council members, according to the plaintiffs' lawyers. The suit, filed Monday, alleges that Mayor Armando Rea, Mayor Pro Tem Arturo Reyes and Councilman Ricardo Sanchez ended city contracts with black-run organizations and sought to fire, demote or transfer black employees in city management.

The Clinton administration will announce today that it will give minority firms preferences for federal contracts when government surveys show that their share of federal business is smaller than their overall market share. The White House hopes the approach will satisfy a Supreme Court edict that preferences are permissible only to remedy past discrimination. Three years ago, the justices threw out the government's previous practice of reserving some federal contracts for minority firms.

Nissan Motor Co., the sixth-largest vehicle seller in the U.S., said Thursday that it plans to boost minority ownership of dealerships 25% by 2002 as it seeks to reverse declining car and truck sales across the country. The Japanese auto maker, which has 1,250 Nissan and Infiniti dealerships in the U.S., said its goal is to increase its 71 auto dealers owned by minorities and women to almost 90. It plans to double the number of dealerships owned by African Americans to 18 from nine.

Vice President Al Gore and Small Business Administration Administrator Aida Alvarez on Tuesday announced a goal to double yearly loan guarantees to African American businesses by 2000. The pledge was the second in a series of commitments to underserved communities. In October, Alvarez vowed to triple annual loan guarantees to Latino-owned businesses by 2000. "African Americans comprise only 3.6% of the total number of small businesses in this country, and the population is 12.

The Big Three auto makers announced an agreement with the Clinton administration Thursday to increase their purchases from minority-owned auto suppliers by 50% over the next three years. The pilot program is aimed at boosting by $3 billion by 2000 the buying of everything from nuts and bolts to advanced computer systems by General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. from minority-owned companies.

Admitting that she spent money from federal contracts on everything from personal vacations to window shades for her home, one of the nation's most prominent minority contractors pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court Tuesday to misusing government funds.

Black women entrepreneurs have more trouble getting capital than their counterparts in other ethnic groups, a study released today showed. Only 38% of black women business owners had bank credit, compared with 60% of their white counterparts, 50% of Latinas, 45% of Asians and 42% of Native Americans.

The Los Angeles Community Development Bank has fallen far short of its mandate to channel loans to the inner city's smallest businesses, with some loan programs failing to finalize a single deal, according to the federally funded bank's annual business plan.

Three-quarters of minority-owned firms surveyed in South-Central Los Angeles and Santa Ana do not bother to apply for business loans or lines of credit, believing erroneously that banks cannot serve their needs or will discriminate against them, the San Francisco-based Greenlining Institute said Wednesday.

Two venture capital firms selected by Merrill Lynch to manage a $5-million equity investment fund for minority businesses here are moving toward closing their first deals and seeking other recipients. Fulcrum Venture Capital Corp. of Culver City is nearing closure on a deal with an East Los Angeles manufacturing firm, and Inroads Capital Partners of Evanston, Ill.