Michael Lissack said. “They are the rule not the exception. There is no mystery about what I do and how I do it.” Both Lazard and First Boston say they paid Mr. Simmons firm at the suggestion of some members of the bond commission, many of whom are state legislators allied with Governor Edwards. The firms indicated that they were told they had to pay Mr. Simmons as a way to do business. But members of other minority-owned firms which are generally small partici- pants in the municipal bond business have been appalled at this controversy fearing it tarnishes their reputation. First Commonwealth Is a storefront brokerage operation. It is not a capital intensive. It is not talent intensive. You have to bring something to the table other than blackness and that is all that Simmons brings. It is a great business. Do no work at all. Just be black. And get paid. At whose expense. Whose do you think? It may be the Wall Street firms that appear to pay, but it is all of us in the long run. For the Wall Street firms can pass these costs on - in the form of interest rates, fees, or reduced liquidity. And when that happens -- you’ve got it - we each pay. The prominent role of minority businesses has had all sorts of strange effects in the municipal finance world. Take Denver Airport. Part of the initial baggage system mess occurred when Denver’s city council refused to award the job of operating the system to BAE the only company that really knows anything about it. Leaders were worried that the Dallas outfit wouldn’t hire enough minorities and women though the firm insisted it would. In the wake of political infighting over who should get the lucrative contract it went to an outsider Aircraft Service International of Miami which has had to race to fathom the system in a few months. Then too the eagerness of Denver’s leaders to retain control and ensure minority participation in all phases of construction led them to put city officials in command overseeing hundreds of contracts rather than hand off the duties to a general contractor who might have provided tighter management. Notes an insider: It was raw greed. Everyone wanted a piece of the contract monies. The city lost control at the outset and the project was destined to run amuck. “The architects of power in the United States must create a force that
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