On April 22, 2013 the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) approved Resolution #3080, committing to a disparity study and the full implementation of vendor and workforce diversity goals for all future procurements after August 1, 2013.
The resolution also required MSD staff to monitor and analyze any data regarding the implementation of vendor and workforce diversity goals and adjust implementation of any goals appropriately.
Ninety-days later, Brian Hoelscher (MSD’s executive director) introduced a policy of his own, waiving the hiring of African Americans: “When the new workforce goals were put in place all existing construction contractor crews with full-time employees were allowed to temporarily retain their race and gender composition.”
In short, if you bid on a MSD contract and had an all-white work-crew, as long you made them full-time employees, you were exempt from the goals.
I first learned of this policy in a March 2015 meeting between myself, Lew Moye of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Claude Brown Sr. and Hoelscher. Hoelscher emphatically stated, “I’m not going to require whites to be laid off to hire blacks.” He further stated, “I made the decision, and I’ll take full responsibility for it.”
Despite having a policy in place that restricted African Americans from being hired, Hoelscher proposed Ord. No. 13974, which was approved on September 12, 2013, to establish a sewer construction-related occupational training program. This was intended to assist with meeting vendor and workforce diversity goal requirements for the district’s capital program with the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE).
By October 1, 2014, MSD formally included the First Source Hiring in their Minority Business Enterprise Utilization & Workforce program; hired a half-dozen in-house MBE compliance monitors; and contracted with an external third-party compliance consultant.
On March 31, 2015, the NAACP issue a Notice of Default to MSD, alleging that MSD was in default of the Community Benefits Agreement that we are party to; that MSD’s default constitutes irreparable injury to minority business enterprises and workforce; and that we would pursue enforcement remedies including injunctive relief.
Shortly after receiving our notice, Hoelscher met with representatives of the Association of General Contractors and SITE, informing them of our intent to file
suit and his need to change the policy. He also told them that his Board of Trustees were frustrated with the workforce participation and wanted strict enforcement of the goals.
By August 2015, the NAACP began to file complaints – and MSD began a PR campaign lying to the public. African American’s trust in MSD will edge even lower after realizing that MSD’s Public Information Manager Lance LeComb lied to them in his published response to the NAACP.
According to LeComb, MSD’s First Source hiring program did not start until early 2015. In fact, MSD made First Source a requirement in their MBE Utilization & Workforce program effective on October 1, 2014 over 11 months ago.
LeComb further questioned how I knew whether anyone in the First Source program got hired on a MSD project. This was another attempt to deceive the public, because all he had to do was look at their First Source Program Quarterly Report from 10/14 to 12/14 and contact the 40 African Americans on the MSD-BUD Journeymen List, which is what I did.
Most of the African American journeymen on the list signed up in November of 2014, not in early 2015, as LeComb would like the public to believe. LeComb stated that MSD’s policy of allowing all-white work-crews was “temporary,” when in fact the practice lasted from August 2013 to August 2015. Two-years is not “temporary.”
LeComb would like you to believe that they are making strides in hiring minorities. One project reportedly obtained 40 percent participation in workforce. But the disparity study recommendations approved by MSD’s board required hiring goals to be counted by trade, and MSD has yet to produce their minority hiring numbers per trade. Only when they do will we be able to see if the 40 percent participation number is real.
LeComb further brags about workforce goals associated with professional services contracts. What he didn’t tell you was that MSD has consistently renewed professional service contracts and refused to attach the current workforce goals to those contracts, costing African Americans permanent jobs with those companies.
According to MSD’s workforce study, African Americans have the capacity to meet hiring goals of 17.8 percent as office and managerial staff; 18.48 percent as professionals; and 28.85 percent as technicians.
We cannot allow public agencies to twist information and actively lie to the African-American community.
Adolphus Pruitt is president of the St. Louis City Branch of the NAACP.
