The city sent this notice:
The City of El Paso was awarded $100,000 in grant funding to use towards extending resources to our minority business population via programs that are easily accessible to the public. We hope to remove barriers of access to important resources such as capital, contracts, markets, and strategic business consulting services. We look to enhance economic and educational opportunities for the public via local resource partners, multiple City of El Paso Departments, and The El Paso Public Library System, which is another support pillar within the business ecosystem and for minorities.
The results of this survey will be used to gather baseline data for the City Accelerator project. The City Accelerator project is aimed at improving local job growth for minority and disadvantaged small business owners and entrepreneurs in all employment and business sectors.
As an important member of our community, your feedback is imperative to better inform the regional needs of the minority small business and entrepreneurial community. Please take five to ten minutes to complete the survey at:
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Aimee Olivas, Business Retention and Expansion Specialist at OlivasAP@elpasotexas.gov. Your participation, highlighted by this survey, is appreciated and will ensure we address the needs of our minority small business owners and entrepreneurs in the El Paso Region.
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Take a moment and look at the survey.
Would you give them this level of information?
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
100K? Shoot, in this town that will only buy you one stop sign and a half-eaten Big Mac.
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i got one of these emails a few weeks ago. it seems that the city actually wants to discriminate in that only “minority” business owners (el paso is somewhere in the area of +80% hispanic, so technically every other race is an actual minority) and they probably will also pass any info gathered to central appraisal
no, i won’t be responding to their “survey”, they should instead see about offering equal protection under the law and stop pandering. besides, one of these city councils will be filing bankruptcy in the near future, they seem to not understand simple business concepts or basic economics
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That reminds me of when I started my woman-owned business in 2001. I went to the Women’s Business Center that was part of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to see about getting it certified and found that I would instead have to go to Albuquerque if I wanted to do that. Since most businesses in El Paso were Hispanic they were basically documenting women-owned businesses as minority-owned businesses. The “women’s business center” was able to capture additional grant funding to help women’s businesses but it really only set up to help minority-owned (Hispanic) women’s businesses. When my business won an SBA award a few years later, someone on the selection committee told me a member of the Hispanic Chamber (also on the selection committee) complained that my business shouldn’t get an award because I wasn’t Hispanic. Fortunately, my business metrics were good enough that less bigoted votes prevailed. Interestingly, enough my business also won the regional SBA competition for that award and was the only business that year to win at the regional level (all local award winners automatically compete at the next level). Yet, someone at the Hispanic Chamber wanted to not give it an award because I wasn’t Hispanic…
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The discrimination here is even worse when being non-hispanic searching for a job. Blatant hostility.
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This letter refers to The El Paso Public Library System as “another support pillar within the business ecosystem and for minorities.”
Then why are they reducing the size of the downtown library and giving that space to a museum? Their statement is utter nonsense. It was included as a public relations move in an attempt to counter the backlash about the decimation of the downtown library. They can’t have it both ways.
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