The City of Wichita did not use racist policies against welfare-to-work provider Diversified Eudcational Training and Manufacturing Co. (DETAMC), according to a jury decision after a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum in Kansas City, KS.
DETAMC made the claim based on the race of its African-American owners, George and Pamela Johnson, in a lawsuit filed two years ago, seeking $3.9 million. On Wednesday, the jury rejected DETAMC’s claims and awarded no damages.
A training program for workers in Wichita’s aerospace industry through the 1990’s, DETAMC suffered from several factors that impaired its business plan in late 2001. Those factors included thousands of post-Sept.11 job losses, which reduced demand for workers with sheet-metal work and blueprint reading skills; federal law, which had allowed DETAMC to obtain grant funding for its programs, changed to establish completion standards DETAMC could no longer meet; and the deteriorating health of George Johnson, which caused him to withdraw from active management of the business.
Seeking to help, City officials proposed to DETAMC an alternate educational service allowed by the new federal law. DETAMC then shifted its concentration to providing pre-employment training in work-readiness life skills and basic education leading to GED completion. However, student complaints and excessive program dropout rates triggered an internal City audit.
DETAMC claimed that because of race, the City intentionally denied it the right to enjoy all benefits and privileges of its contractual relationship with the City, by terminating its contracts publicizing results of the audit. DETAMC claimed it suffered resulting economic damages including loss of good name, reputation, honor or integrity in the sum of $3.9 million.
The jury also considered whether the City breached certain training contracts with DETAMC when the City did not pay some outstanding invoices for students who attended DETAMC through December 2002. Payments were withheld based on the audit findings, which included performance standards not specifically set out in the contracts at issue. The jury found that DETAMC had performed to the extent required by those contracts, and ordered the City to pay the sum of $51,388 to satisfy those obligations.
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