Pinnacle, Vickers quarrel over inclusion
By Alvin A. Reid Of the St. Louis American
When – and if – the Rosa Parks Inclusion Initiative and Pinnacle Entertainment work out their differences in regard to minority participation during continuing construction of its $500-million casino hotel project on Laclede’s Landing, that agreement could be landmark.
Lumiere Place is a big project, and that “if” in regard to compromise could be just as large.
Eric Vickers, an Initiative spokesman, and Wade Hundley, Pinnacle Entertainment president, traded correspondence this week detailing each group’s view of the contentious process of finding and employing minority contractors and subcontractors.
According to Hundley, “Some 15 percent of the construction workforce at Lumiere Place currently is minority, despite the fact that, based on anecdotal evidence, far less than 10 percent of the St. Louis-based construction union workforce is minority.”
Vickers had written to Hundley on May 1 as a “follow up to (Hundley’s) visit to the Construction Prep Center and subsequent discussion.”
Rosa Parks Initiative supporters had picketed the Lumiere Place work site several times in April, before the group decided temporarily to stand down.
But on May 1 Vickers warned that the parties “need to either seek an amicable closure or renew the confrontation.”
He wrote, “The gap between Pinnacle’s present percentage of minority participation and the City’s 25 percent goal represents the loss of millions of dollars that should be flowing to minority construction firms, dollars that could and should be used to build capacity.”
The question of capacity is the obvious sticking point in the current Pinnacle-Rosa Parks debate – and in future major construction projects in the region.
Hundley told the American on Monday that Pinnacle would help finance an effort to “assemble meaningful data and analysis” of the minority work force in the region.
“There is no basis for comparison,” Hundley said of inclusion on the Pinnacle project.
“Nobody can give meaningful data. Some of the goals that are set may or may not be reachable. Once you have a real baseline, then you can get realistic goals,” he said.
“If meaningful change is going to happen, we have to get this data. How many minority-owned companies do we have? Really, how many are there?”
Hundley said “the (capacity) problem can’t be solved overnight,” and that his company sincerely wants to be “a catalyst” in finding a solution.
Rodney Crim, director of the St. Louis Development Corporation (a City agency), said, “The City has not studied capacity since 2001. Generally, you want to do that every five or six years. So, we agree that it is time to study the current capacity level of minority- and women-owned businesses.”
Crim pointed out that Pinnacle is not getting any subsidy from the City of St. Louis and is “voluntarily” working to reach the goals specified in the Mayor’s Executive Order.
“They are goals, not quotas. We want legitimate minority participation that is well-matched for the job, and we can’t manufacture that,” Crim said.
“That said, the mayor is pushing all of us to push (general contractor) McCarthy Construction to do more. We think they can.”
Comptroller Darlene Green said, “I think a comprehensive study of minority-owned business capacity in St. Louis could be a useful tool to get more inclusion in the future, but the stadium project showed that there is the capacity to meet minority inclusion goals now.”
“We can’t let the fact of the capacity issue mitigate the aggression that needs to be applied to the issue,” said John Steffen, president of Pyramid, an active major developer in downtown St. Louist.
“In fact, it’s the reason we need to be aggressive. Having said that, capacity is a problem.”
Hundley pointed out that Pinnacle’s investment in the St. Louis region will top $1 billion, will create more than 2,500 permanent jobs between the city and county projects and will create more than 1,500 construction jobs.
In his letter, Vickers demanded that Pinnacle “institute a minority workforce program for the duration of the project, which would include identifying every minority currently being counted as working on the project.”
Regardless of capacity issues, Vickers wrote, if the project fails to meet a 25-percent goal it would “only perpetuate the discrimination seared into this town’s construction industry.”
Vickers also demanded that Pinnacle contribute to a loan fund for minority businesses “similar to the $2-million contribution made several years ago by the Casino Queen.”
Hundley said that request “would prove to be impractical for us to implement, or impossible given the regulatory environment of the gaming industry.”
Another request from the Inclusion Alliance is that Pinnacle select a general contractor for the Embassy Suites renovation project “who best demonstrates in their bid and history maximum minority workforce and contractor inclusion.”
While Vickers and Hundley are clearly in disagreement over key issues concerning capacity and minority inclusion, neither has reached a point of declaring the stalemate at an impasse.
“We are grateful for the personal attention that you have shown this (issue),” Vickers wrote, “and we remain hopeful and optimistic that this negative situation can be turned into something very positive for all.”
In the closing of his letter, Hundley wrote, “We can collectively make major inroads to bring more benefits to the minority community from the many exciting projects that are becoming a reality in the St. Louis region.”
“Pinnacle is a part of this community, and I would hope they and the other gaming companies would work with the Minority Inclusion Alliance in being as inclusive as possible,” said U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay.
“Minority inclusion is all about equal opportunity for those who have been left out of the economic mainstream – especially in the construction field.”