By 8:10 a.m. on Dec. 12, the Tax Finance Commission meeting hall was already standing room only. And still lines of African-American construction workers and business owners were streaming through the door.
Mayor Francis G. Slay’s chief of staff Jeff Rainford walked up to the podium and made a historic announcement. In one blow, his statement muted the potential uprising that was stirring in the room.
“The mayor issued an executive order yesterday,” Rainford said. “It is Executive Order Number 46. It is important enough that I think we will be talking about that number for a long time to come.”
The order extends the city’s existing workforce goals on public works projects to all TIF projects that are valued at $1 million or more. The announcement came moments before CORTEX, a $2.2 billion research-park project, presented a TIF proposal for $168 million in tax incentives to the TIF Commission.
“The first such project will be CORTEX,” Rainford said. “But it won’t be the last.”
Many of those who filled the extra seats at the meeting were part of the St. Louis Economic Fairness Coalition – which consists of MOKAN, the St. Louis Clergy Coalition, Metropolitan Congregation United (MCU), Construction Prep Center, the African-American Chamber of Commerce and others.
Yaphett El-Amin, executive director of MOKAN, an advocacy organization for minority and female workers and business owners, spoke before the commission.
“Today MOKAN is here to express our support for the inclusion of minorities and female workers within the CORTEX project,” El-Amin said. “We see today a need for goals, but as your commissioner asked, how are we going to ensure that the compliance is there, and that we make sure people are actually working on these projects? We are asking for you to keep your eye on the prize, so that these workers can have the opportunity to be productive citizens and provide dollars back into the city as they work on city projects.”
For the past few months, community leaders and elected officials have asked CORTEX to establish inclusion goals for not only construction jobs but permanent employment at the research park as well. Now under the executive order, CORTEX must award 25 percent of all labor hours to minorities and five percent to women, 20 percent to city residents and 15 percent to apprentices.
A week before, The St. Louis American reported that CORTEX had not yet set workforce goals.
CORTEX president and CEO Dennis Lower told the commission he would abide by the order, and the commissioners unanimously (8-0) approved the TIF. Yet it wasn’t without several inquiries from the TIF Board members about how CORTEX leaders would meet the city’s new workforce goals.
TIF Commissioner Ken Hutchinson asked how CORTEX plans to monitor the project’s developers.
Lower responded, “Prior to the executive order yesterday, which we are just learning as you are learning about what that is, we had put in third-party monitors written into the agreement with each developer,” he said.
Now with the order, Lower said he will have to revisit the agreements.
“Anticipating that this is a long-term effort and commitment, I have included in my budget for next year adequate funds to be able to retain a person who will focus full time on inclusion for CORTEX,” Lower said. “Now what that means in the light of Executive Order 46, I’m not sure.”
The commissioners encouraged Lower to still require third-party monitors and to hire a full-time person on inclusion.
The TIF proposal involves several projects, including a new administration building for BJC HealthCare, lab space and offices for Wexford Science & Technology, and an orthopedic surgery center for Shriners Hospital for Children.
In the presentation, Lower stated that over 25 years, the project would generate 26,000 construction jobs and 13,000 permanent jobs.