OAKLAND Calif.
A lawsuit claims concession contracts at Oakland
International Airport
are being awarded in violation of a voter-approved law banning preference given
based on race, gender or ethnicity.
The suit, announced by the Pacific Legal Foundation on
Monday, says the city of Oakland
and the Port of Oakland,
the agency that runs the airport, are violating Proposition 209, approved by
voters in 1996, in granting contracts.
According to the lawsuit, an airport concessions program
sets an overall goal of having 18.7 percent of the airport’s non-car-rental
concession business operated by companies owned primarily by non-whites or
women.
Airport officials issued a statement saying that their
concessions program is federally approved and “has never used quotas to
achieve its nondiscrimination goals.”
Pacific Legal Foundation filed the lawsuit on behalf of the
American Civil Rights Foundation.
– Associated Press
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