91视频

Discrimination is alive and well in the construction industry, according to Maurice Rahming, president of and the newly elected executive vice president of the .

It stems from a resistance to change, he said. He likens it to a child who refuses to try a new food.

鈥淭hey drop it in their lap in a napkin and hide it,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat to me emphasizes the need for policing and the need to make sure that problems are actually being addressed. It’s unfortunate, but I think a lot of times what happens is no one wants to have those courageous conversations and say what a person here is doing is wrong and we won’t allow that to happen in our city.鈥�

For instance, disadvantaged business enterprise fraud continues to be a problem, he said. A husband may take out a business in his wife’s name to qualify as woman-owned, or a contractor may sell materials to a minority business only to buy them back for a fee in order to include those dollars toward mandatory utilization goals.

The results of recent disparity studies by the city of Portland and the Portland Development Commission showed abysmally low inclusion of minority-owned and women-owned contractors, and Rahming said he does not believe the reports accurately reflect the true extent of disparity.

That’s frustrating, especially for a business owner who began learning the value of hard, skilled work as an electrical apprentice at age 16. He remembers fondly one of his first jobs working for a minority electrician on the East Coast.

鈥淲e were driving through Boston and he was pointing out the buildings that he had worked on or was a superintendent on the electrical,鈥� said Rahming, 43. 鈥淭his was extremely enlightening for me as a young minority that didn’t realize that 鈥� there are opportunities for me.鈥�

Rahming became one of the youngest electrical journeymen in New Hampshire, where he grew up. He later got his supervisor’s license, and after 10 years working in the field he opened O’Neill Electric with his wife and co-owner, Ali O’Neill, about 14 years ago. The company name was chosen with careful consideration.

鈥淟et’s just say that Rahming Electric wasn’t as big of a driver in the market as O’Neill,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen we first started our business, we would have people calling us (and) basically saying, 鈥榊es, it’s a good Irish name, so we’re going to give you work.’ 鈥�

Today, the company has grown and does $14 million in annual sales. Rahming has also been involved in NAMC’s local chapter for more than a decade; he has served on the board for three years and as past president.

As executive vice president of the national organization Rahming wants to give chapters across the nation access to best practices and greater access to elected officials. He also wants to continue the conversation about inclusion in the construction workplace.

Rahming recently answered questions from the 91视频.

91视频: What is the status of discrimination today? How pervasive is it and how has it changed?

Maurice Rahming: I’d say 20 years ago, to discriminate openly was an acceptable practice. And now it’s not open discrimination, but it’s discrimination by a series of reasons why we cannot hire that person. We still hear it 鈥� 鈥榃ell, minorities aren’t really interested in this type of work’ would be a common thing that will happen today. And you’ll hear, 鈥榃omen in the industry want to have children, so they’re less dependable.’ So again, it’s a lot more subtle, but it hasn’t gone away.

91视频: How do people combat that?

Rahming: I think how you deal with discrimination, especially as it pertains to construction, is you make an aggressive inclusion program. So when people see 鈥� they’re actually capable of doing that better than my previous contractor, then that breaks down those barriers.

91视频: So how is Portland doing in terms of inclusion?

Rahming: Look at the diversification of our city and the utilization of minorities as contractors, which is a good career and a good business 鈥� 20 percent of residents in the city are minorities, but the utilization 鈥� and I might misquote 鈥� but I know it’s less than 5 percent are in construction. For Latinos, for every $1 billion or close to every $1 billion spent, the utilization for that group was 0.5 percent 鈥� 5 million bucks. That’s nothing 鈥� similar African-American numbers, similar numbers across the board. And so if you could think of a cleaning product and you look at the bottle and it says, 鈥淜ills 99.5 percent of germs,鈥� 鈥� we as a city are utilizing those same numbers. Is it not intentional? If it’s not intentional, then we have to do something to make sure that this doesn’t happen 鈥� Anything else would be described as an endangered species.

91视频: You have said that disparity studies need to be focused on specific minority groups rather than minority- and women-owned contractors lumped in with emerging small businesses. Why?

Rahming: One is going under the assumption that all minority firms are ESBs. That assumption is incorrect 鈥� I think what the city has to do is it has to keep it separate. The city can have a vigorous and vibrant small business program, but (it) can also have an equally exciting minority business program to make sure that inclusion occurs on both.

91视频: You have also said that the city of Portland’s prequalification process is limiting inclusion of minority contractors. Can you explain that?

Rahming: (The city has a prequalification form), which basically says, 鈥極K, if you haven’t done this, this particular way at this period in time, you can’t do it for us.’ We did an MRI machine on the VA and we flew it in through the third floor. They had us build out the entire room, do all the coordination and design. If they had a set up a pre-qual form in such a way that said, 鈥榊ou need to show that you’ve done five of these before you can do this one,’ we would never have done the one 鈥� Instead of looking at what my workforce is comprised of, or what my bonding capacity is comprised of, and how my plan on delivering the product (looks), what the pre-qual does is it just basically (asks), 鈥榃hat have you done in the past?’ 鈥� It’s pretty much a chicken and the egg. Unfortunately, what happens is a lot of the minority firms either look at another city that might be more receptive, or another state for that matter, so you’re kind of pushing them outside the city.

91视频: Is DBE fraud a problem here in Oregon?

Rahming: I believe so. There are a lot of bad activities that occur 鈥� where we’ll say it’s a bad activity, others will say it’s an opportunity. The state’s responsibility, and the city’s responsibility for that matter, is to ensure 鈥� and I told you how low the numbers were 鈥� that even with those extremely low numbers, to make sure that if they have 10 percent of it being corrupted, they need to report it to the state and currently I don’t believe that’s happening.