Minority participation for the $67.5 million renovation project at Central Library downtown looks good on paper. Yet it’s harder to find African-American or minority workers on the job site.
A recent video report by the River City Examiner showed 97 white construction workers and no black workers arriving to work from 6:30 a.m. to 7:10 a.m. on August 18.
Luis Ortiz, a St. Louis Minority Supplier Development Council representative who is working with the library on the project’s minority participation, said 20.5 percent of contracts for construction costs are going to minority-owned business enterprises (MBE) and 5.12 percent to women-owned business enterprises (WBE).
However, the council is not tracking the “boots on the ground,” Ortiz said. Neither are the construction manager, BSI Constructors Inc., the development manager, CLR Consultants Inc., nor the library’s Board of Directors.
Waller McGuire, executive director of the St. Louis Public Library, said the library has aligned its participation goals with the Mayor’s Executive Order 28, which mandates at least 25 percent MBE participation and at least 5 percent WBE participation on all contracts where city funds are used.
In addition to this order, the City of St. Louis Board of Aldermen also passed a board bill (ordinance 68412) stating that any public works project set a goal that 25 percent of all “labor hours” be completed by minorities as well.
However, the library is exempt from the ordinance.
The library is an independent political entity, and it acquired the bonds to pay for the renovation on its own, McGuire said. The city is not paying for it, and this is not a public works project.
McGuire said although the library is not held to the Mayor’s Executive Order, its board has adopted this as the library’s standard. Regarding the ordinance on labor hours, McGuire said the board recently asked how it could be adopted as well and what implications it could have.
“We are putting a report together of what it would cost,” McGuire said. “We haven’t done it before, so it’s new territory.”
The next board meeting is in September, and he said he hopes to have the information then.
Chuck Eveker, vice president of CLR Consultants Inc., said a year ago the Board of Directors engaged the St. Louis Minority Business Council (since renamed the St. Louis Minority Supplier Development Council) to maximize its reach into the minority business community.
“Luis’ job was to make sure there were minorities included,” Eveker said. “It’s an important part of the process from the Board of Directors’ perspective.”
The library called on the council to be a “dependent authority” that creates bi-monthly reports on the project’s participation numbers, McGuire said. The July 25, 2011 report shows that 20.57 percent of the $36.7 million construction-related costs for the Central Library went to MBE/DBE contractors.
The biggest MBE contracts were $1.28 million to Kirkwood Masonry (a Hispanic-owned company) and $1.1 million to Capital International Communications (a black-owned business.)
According to the report, the project team sent out bid proposal invitations to 240 minority firms, and 28 of these firms submitted proposals. Sixteen firms received subcontracts.
The total development cost of the Central library project is $67.5 million. Of that, $64.1 million came from bond issues that the library sold in late June 2010. As a stand-alone entity, the library has bonding capacity, so no city funds were involved directly, said Doug Woodruff, vice president of CLR Consultants Inc.
Currently the St. Louis Public Library Foundation is in the middle of a $20 million capital campaign to help pay off a portion of these bonds, and revenue from the library’s operations will also be put towards this effort. There is a smaller portion of $3.5 million, which the St. Louis Public Library contributed to get the project to this point.
The construction work started last September with demolition, and now Eveker said they are working interior finishes. The project will be completed next year.
