91视频

The Portland City Council held procedural votes Thursday to close out two construction projects used to test-drive a policy geared to help meet minority hiring goals. Dozens of union members attended the hearing in support of Community Benefits Agreements, describing the good works performed through the CBA pilot project and objecting to an independent report that aired issues with it.

With the city awarding more than $200 million in construction contracts annually, Portland commissioners say more needs to be done to live up to past resolutions regarding equitable contracting. Right now, the city is聽putting together an inclusion plan that would apply to all major city projects across all bureaus, and CBAs are a hot topic.

CBAs are contracts tying project developers and stakeholders to equity goals. Supporters include several notable nonprofit organizations and members of the city鈥檚 Equitable Contracting and Purchasing Commission.聽However, some people in the minority contracting community consider CBAs union-friendly 鈥� project labor agreements by another name. Opponents include Nate McCoy, who represents 33 minority-owned construction firms as head of the National Association of Minority Contractors鈥� Oregon chapter, and longtime minority contracting activist James Posey.

Throughout the nearly four-hour hearing, Commissioner Nick Fish 鈥� a former labor lawyer whose Water Bureau oversaw the pilot project 鈥� played interlocutor with panelists, attempting to zero in on points of contention, while continually reminding the room of common goals. He often referred to subjects of his questions as 鈥渕y friend.鈥�

Fish has told the 91视频 he supports a modified form of CBA 鈥� a community benefit plan (CBP) 鈥� that features heavy union participation but is also open to minority-owned open-shop firms.

鈥淭he single difference between the CBA and the CBP is whether you鈥檙e a signatory or not,鈥� Fish said to Willy Myers of the Columbia-Pacific Building Trades. 鈥淕iven your deep commitment to getting the outcomes, why does that matter to you?鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 not the signatory nature; it鈥檚 also the meaningful oversight, the group of professionals in the room to identify and course-correct any deficiencies in this agreement,鈥� Myers replied.

鈥淪o if we had the same people in the room without the signatory, would you participate at the same level?鈥� Fish asked.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e not going to get the same people in the room without a signatory,鈥� Myers said.

Supporters say that under a CBA, both union and open-shop firms will get opportunities.

鈥淲e know that if it wasn鈥檛 for the CBA we wouldn鈥檛 have gotten to work on the projects we鈥檝e done,鈥� said James Faison of Faison Construction.

Keith Edwards, board member of 鈥減rison-to-work鈥� nonprofit Constructing Hope, said the CBA pilot project funded critical services for his group.

鈥淭he CBA has clearly shown that aggressive goals can be met and should be raised,鈥� he said.

But advocates like Posey say unions have historically been unfriendly to minorities and women, and minority owners are better able to hire from their own communities without them.

A representative of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries addressed the council to discuss why nearly one in three women and one in two African-American men drop out of four-year apprenticeships. BOLI has other alarming statistics; for instance, only 11 African-American men have completed carpentry apprenticeships in Oregon since 2010.

City officials have spoken against becoming 鈥渟ignatory鈥� with unions through CBAs, and last week several raised concerns. Fred Miller, head of the Office of Management and Finance, and Michael Stuhr, head of the Water Bureau, are publicly airing concerns about CBAs, citing issues that emerged during the pilot projects.

鈥淲hile the CBA provided benefits to the projects, the deficiencies identified in this report also had negative impacts on both the Kelly Butte Reservoir and Interstate Maintenance Facility renovation projects,鈥� Stuhr wrote to the council in a report dated Sept. 2.

Stuhr wrote that the draft model CBA used on the pilot projects should not be applied to future projects, citing outcomes identified in an independent report by consulting firm Framework LLC.

Miller listed issues he sees with CBAs when he wrote to the council in a聽. They include the appearance of conflict of interest and a $500,000 line item by the contractor for administration of the CBA pilot program.

Additionally, Christine Moody, the city鈥檚 chief procurement officer, and her boss, Ken Rust, the city鈥檚 chief financial officer, are renouncing a聽report given to the council last week聽by a volunteer commission supportive of CBAs 鈥� the Equitable Contracting and Purchasing Commission.

Moody defended some of her office鈥檚 equity efforts in a memo sent to ECPC Chairman Dante James, head of the Office of Equity and Human Rights. And she met personally with him Sept. 20.

鈥淲e think the ECPC presentation included some information that was inaccurate and unclear,鈥� she wrote in the letter obtained by the 91视频 through a records request.

And in a Sept. 20 email to the city鈥檚 elected officials, Rust gave an overview of concerns raised in Moody鈥檚 report.

鈥淲e wanted to make sure council was aware of it, because the presentation was very confusing,鈥� he told the 91视频.

Rust said he didn鈥檛 want to take a position on CBAs, but felt the procurement office could have corrected errors in the ECPC鈥檚 presentation had it had a chance to review it. He suspected the errors were the result of inexperienced staffers transferring complex and incomplete information from one software program to another.

On Sept. 14, nearly a year after ECPC members met for the first time, they painted a dire picture of the city鈥檚 efforts to increase inclusion. Graphics showed white males dwarfing all other categories and backward movement in key areas.

鈥淐BAs are a powerful tool for promoting the including of underrepresented people,鈥� said Nicky Nicholson-Klingerman, an O鈥橬eill Electric project administrator who addressed the council earlier this month on behalf of the ECPC.

A coalition supportive of CBAs issued its own postmortem of the pilot project: 鈥淭he Community Benefits Agreement: A Proven Tool for Advancing Portland鈥檚 Commitment to Equity in Contracting and Workforce Diversity.鈥�

ECPC member Maurice Rahming told the council at Thursday’s hearing that union hiring halls are better able to respond to calls for a diverse workforce than contractors, who currently aren鈥檛 being held accountable where diversity is concerned. He said CBAs get better results, as well as detailed data for helping officials understand the depth of the problem.

鈥淚f you remove (CBAs) you see almost a non-utilization of women and minorities; the gap is that great,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he reason you see such a drastic drop in the data last year is because the CBA projects were winding down.鈥�

McCoy told the 91视频 that the data the ECPC used in its presentation didn鈥檛 reflect what he鈥檇 seen when he worked as a construction manager in the Housing Bureau.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have CBAs and we always hit the numbers,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he biggest overarching issue is that minority contractors that are smaller still have to compete in a big-boy system that is this low-bid process.鈥�

Two major city projects now in preconstruction 鈥� Washington Park Reservoir improvements and the Portland Building reconstruction 鈥� have begun and aren鈥檛 employing 鈥渢rue鈥� or 鈥減ure鈥� CBAs.

Fish said the timing for focusing on the CBA issue was 鈥減erfect,鈥� with a new mayor taking over in January and several big-ticket city projects on the horizon.

鈥淚 think we have to rethink that commission and bring some new faces in,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think that will be an opportunity for the new mayor.鈥�