Detroit ? Julius Tunstull already thinks the city of Detroit doesn’t do enough for minority contractors. He can’t imagine what it’ll be like when the voter-approved ban on affirmative action takes effect Dec. 22.

The ban would make illegal the city’s use of a formula for awarding bids that provides an edge to women and minority contractors.

“It’ll just be worse,” Tunstull, who is black, said Friday. He is owner of Tunstull Building Co. in Detroit, a small company that specializes in residential, industrial and commercial construction.

Without affirmative action, minority and women contractors “would be at a disadvantage. They’re just going to pass us up,” he said.

Tuesday’s election, in which a majority of Michigan voters approved a ban on affirmative action programs in government contracts, hiring and higher education admission, has cities like Detroit trying to determine how to protect initiatives designed to achieve diversity and provide equal opportunity in accordance with the new law.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has asked the law department to explore the city’s options and also plans to meet with the NAACP to talk strategy, said Matt Allen, the mayor’s spokesman.

One solution could lie in a move Kilpatrick made months ago when he told staff to create an ordinance that would give preference to Detroit-based contractors.

“That way, you don’t have to deal with gender or race,” Allen said Thursday.

Passage of Proposal 2 has already spawned one lawsuit by activist group By Any Means Necessary, as it filed suit in U.S. District Court in Detroit to stop the implementation of the constitutional amendment. Governmental institutions, colleges and universities are planning their response.