A group of black St. Louis aldermen will push for a stronger workforce and business inclusion plan on the proposed stadium bill at an aldermanic committee meeting on Thursday, December 10.
For 21st Ward Alderman Antonio French, it’s a simple equation.
“If you want (city) money, your contracts must include this,” said French, who sits on the Ways and Means Committee, which is currently hearing the stadium bill.
On Thursday, French will introduce amendments that outlines goals for employing more minority workers and businesses, as well as city residents and women, on the $1 billion stadium project.
And if the construction management team doesn’t meet those goals, then they have to refund the city a “pro rata share” of the contract and labor costs that should have gone to minority and women workers or businesses owned by minorities or women.
The stadium project’s construction management team is Hunt Construction Group, Clayco, Inc., KAI Design and Build, and Legacy Building Group (HCKL).
All the goals are based on findings from the city’s disparity study, which analyzed the “capacity” or number of minority workers and businesses in the region.
French said one of the reasons that the city hasn’t been successful in hitting its inclusion goals is because it was not able to include real penalties for contractors who don’t meet their goals. Case law has shown that if city governments don’t have their inclusion requirements backed by a disparity study, their minority participation numbers had no legal teeth.
The proposed stadium is the city’s first large-scale, publicly funded project since the final study was released in June.
“These are fresh numbers,” French said, “and this is what we did it for. We need to use it.”
The aldermen’s plan requires the project construction manager to award at least 37.81 percent of all construction labor hours to minority workers, 23.28 percent to city residents and 6.9 percent to women. That’s about 10 percent higher for minorities than the original plan presented by the mayor’s office, St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) and the stadium taskforce in early November.
The aldermen’s plan requires the general contractor to award at least 30.5 percent of all construction prime contract dollars to companies owned by minorities and 12.23 percent to women-owned companies. For professional service prime contracts, 30 percent must go to minority-owned businesses and 23.78 percent to women-owned companies.
“Now that we have a disparity study, this now allows us to see the full scope of the problems and put some hard numbers behind the disparity that has existed because of our contracting practices,” French said.
The disparity study found that the City of St. Louis failed to employ a fair amount of minority- and women-owned businesses when awarding city contracts for construction jobs from 2007 to 2012. Even though African-American companies represented 27. 55 percent of the available contracting business, they only received 5.4 percent of prime contract dollars – a more than $50 million disparity, the study found.
Among black-owned professional services businesses, they received 8 percent of construction prime contract dollars but they represent 19.3 percent of the available contracting business.
“This is one of the largest public projects in the city’s history,” French said. “We know we have the workers that are hungry for opportunity. If their tax dollars are being used, they should have an opportunity for employment.”
To establish the new inclusion plan, all the African-American aldermen on the Ways and Means Committee and Lewis Reed, president of the Board of Aldermen, have been meeting daily. They have spoken with consultants and attorneys to make sure the language is strong, and that the plan reflects best practices around the country, French said. The plan also has funding requirements for apprenticeship training and contractor loan funds.
Aside from penalties, another unique aspect of the plan is that the project will have a third-party monitoring team that reports directly to a committee of aldermen, appointed by Reed. The committee will meet at least monthly, French said, to review inclusion reports, and those meetings will all be open to the public. This removes SLDC, which works closely with the mayor’s office, from primary responsibility on monitoring inclusion.
“The big difference is that what happens in the executive branch is private,” French said, “and what happens in the legislative branch is public. It will allow people to see what the situation is.” (The SLDC reports to a Board of Directors that does hold public meetings; one is scheduled for 3 p.m. December 10 at its second floor board room, 1520 Market St.)
And if third-party monitor has any trouble getting information from the contractor or the “owner” of the project, the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RSA), then the aldermanic committee has subpoena power to demand it, French said.
French said the inclusion plan has the backing of the Ways and Means Committee members. He also expects Gov. Jay Nixon’s NFL stadium taskforce, led by Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz, to be on board as well.
“An aggressive enough minority inclusion plan would be reason enough to support the project,” said Tom Shepard, Reed’s chief of staff. “This is our first opportunity to address those disparities in a real way and set a new standard for public finance of these types of projects in the city.”
Follow this reporter on Twitter @rebeccarivas.
