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No bid means that there was no competition or notice of a contract up for bid. The contracts were simply assigned to someone. Generally, no bid contracts are only supposed to be for rather small stuff where prices are low and pretty generic (or for some emergencies -- i.e. a bridge falls down and needs to replaced yesterday).

Minority set asides require that a certain percentage of contracts should go to minorities. But competitive bidding is still required. A higher bid might be accepted if the bidder is a minority and the bid is close. But the bid isn't just given without bidding or notice.

Re your #48. I know, I know. But to me, its a question of degree.

There are a lot of set-asides which are essentially non-competitive within the set-aside group, and definitely not competitive outside the group. I don't think you believe that set-asides for race or gender aren't subject to manipulation and cronyism any more than I do.

My tongue-in-cheek point is that the direct nepotism of the mayor is worse than the usual set aside, but not entirely different. He has abused his power by essentially giving non-competitive contracts to his cronies. In set-asides, the law does it for us by limiting competition--sometimes to very small groups of non-competitive bidders. Both are anti-merit and anti-competitive, and both steal from the public pocket.