St. Louis County’s director of its Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise Program is suing his own bosses, accusing the county government of retaliating against him after he spoke publicly about the need for reforms.
Nathaniel Adams has been the director of the county’s MWBE program since August 2020. He had also been working with the St. Louis County Council to help draft legislation that would have changed the department in which the MWBE program is housed—and it’s for that reason, he says, that he was suspended in January. He alleges the county’s actions run counter to Missouri whistleblower protection laws.
Several times last year, at the invitation of Councilwoman Shalonda Webb, Adams spoke at Saint Louis County Council meetings about what he saw as a conflict of interest in the way the MWBE was structured. The program exists as part of the county’s Division of Procurement, which oversees the county’s acquisitions of goods and services from outside businesses. Adams says in his lawsuit that its goals are “misaligned” from the program he ran. The MWBE program’s purpose is to “maximize participation” of businesses owned by women and minorities in projects that get county dollars. Adams went so far as to propose language for a county ordinance that would make the MWBE program independent from Procurement, the suit says…