A trio of school replacements and a renovation to create a new Center for Black Student Excellence (CBSE) will create job opportunities for minority-owned contractors and subcontractors.

Voters in May 2025 gave Portland Public Schools the green light to issue up to $1.83 billion in bonds to pay for new Jefferson, Cleveland and Ida B. Wells high schools as well as updates of other buildings to hold the CBSE, and other work. Construction is expected to begin soon after a five-year delay.

PPS awarded a five-year, $61.1 million contract to Procedeo, a construction program management company based in Grapevine, Texas, to oversee the projects. Procedeo will base its local operations in the One North development at 25 N. Fremont St. Space there and at 3506-3514 N. Vancouver Ave. will be used for the CBSE.

Procedeo has partnered with NAMC-Oregon to focus on advancing equitable participation, transparent engagement and meaningful access to opportunity throughout the life of the bond program, Procedeo President Brian Johnson said.

“Working alongside PPS, contractors and community stakeholders, Procedeo will help ensure that all contractors, designers and related professionals are informed, prepared and positioned to participate in both the construction process and the broader planning conversations that shape these projects,” he said.

Nate McCoy, NAMC-Oregon’s executive director, said the partnership combines Procedeo’s deep expertise in program management and delivery and NAMC-Oregon’s long-standing relationships with the contracting, workforce and community-based ecosystems, including services in technical assistance and community engagement.

“Together, we are aligning technical oversight with intentional equity, workforce and business inclusion strategies to ensure the PPS bond program delivers both high-quality facilities and lasting community benefit,” McCoy said.

Johnson described the projects as historic investments in public education infrastructure in Portland because, beyond delivering modern, safe and inspiring school facilities, they support local jobs, strengthen small and minority-owned businesses, and reinforce schools as community anchors.

“The bond improves learning environments while also creating economic opportunities that extend well beyond school walls, benefiting families, neighborhoods and the regional workforce,” he said.

The projects will integrate career technical education by connecting students to real-world exposure in construction, engineering, architecture and skilled trades, Johnson said. Through site visits, classroom presentations, mentorship opportunities and hands-on learning experiences, students will be able to see how academic concepts translate into viable career paths.

“These experiences help demonstrate that high-quality, well-paid careers exist right in their communities,” Johnson said, adding that other engagement will be encouraged as well.

“Architects, engineers and designers involved in the bond projects will have opportunities to share their career journeys, explain the design process, and involve students in problem-solving exercises related to real school projects,” he said. “This engagement helps students envision themselves in design careers while fostering a culture of mentorship within the profession.”

During the projects, Procedeo will prioritize clear, consistent communication with students’ families through community meetings, school-based events, multilingual materials and accessible project updates, Johnson said.

“Engagement efforts are designed to explain not only what is being built, but why these investments matter over the long term for student success, neighborhood vitality and economic opportunity,” he said. “By keeping families informed and involved, the project builds trust and ensures that community voices remain central to the bond’s success.”

Procedeo’s services for each project will include fiscal and budget management, development and maintenance of the project management plan, project scheduling, project controls, management of contingencies, design and engineering review, preconstruction, construction phase oversight, and occupancy and post-occupancy services.

Procedeo will receive base compensation of approximately $55.1 million, which represents 4 percent of the estimated remaining budgets for the three school modernizations combined, CBSE construction, and administrative oversight of the Office of School Modernization, which is administering the bond projects.

The contract includes an additional $6 million incentive for the three school projects to be completed on time. They are scheduled to be built and completed simultaneously. Rather than have three firms manage the projects separately, PPS opted to lean on one firm for accountability and advance the projects collectively.

Placing management of the billion-dollar-plus bond program under one firm also will reduce price escalation, according to PPS Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong.

In addition to the Jefferson, Cleveland and Ida B. Wells high school projects, the 2025 PPS bond program will prioritize seismic improvements at eight to 10 schools most at risk during earthquakes. A reserve fund will be established for replacing major systems, such as HVAC, and emergency and unplanned projects.

Any remaining funds, including cost savings from the high school projects, will be used to update or replace leaking or deteriorating school roofs, mechanical systems, plumbing, electrical systems, fire alarms and sprinklers, safety and security systems, elevators, site elements, exterior enclosures as well as other work.

In addition, athletic facility upgrades will be done at Roosevelt, Lincoln, Franklin and Grant high school, and West Sylvan Middle School. Athletic hub facilities will be created at Jackson Middle School and the Marshall campus. Physical education spaces and high school performing arts and theater facilities will be updated as part of the most recent round of bond funding.

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A Portland-based market rate developer has voluntarily included affordable housing in a development project, while also awarding 27 percent of its total development construction costs to Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs).

Ninebark, a 246-unit residential community in Washougal, Washington, developed by Killian Pacific, was completed in August.

With the Ninebark project, designed by Holst Architecture, Killian Pacific chose to include affordable housing. Killian Pacific also has an inclusive contracting goal of at least 25 percent for total development construction costs on all developments.

At Ninebark, with its first-of a-kind Income Restricted Housing Program (VIRHP) in the region, Killian Pacific selected 10 percent of the apartments – a total of 24 units – as affordable, making them available to households that make 80 percent or less than the area’s median family income. The program makes sure monthly housing expenses will not exceed more than 30 percent of residents’ monthly income and follows the same certification process as the Vancouver Housing Authority to ensure units are offered to those who need it the most.

“Having an adequate supply of affordable housing has always been a problem for any city, and it’s only getting more difficult. Affordable housing is typically only supplied by developers who are incentivized to build it, or by housing authorities,” stated Mitch Kneipp, the city of Washougal’s community development director.

Kneipp stated that while the developers for Ninebark did receive a tax credit through the Multi-Family Housing Tax Exemption (MFTE) program, it had nothing to do with affordable housing, and Killian Pacific voluntarily provided it.

Michi Slick, Killian Pacific’s principal of development, stated in an email that the firm is committed to addressing housing affordability, uplifting under-resourced MWBEs and incorporating other inclusive practices into its future projects.

Killian Pacific’s decision to create the Voluntary Income Restricted Housing program at Ninebark came from a recognition of the challenges the region faces in terms of housing affordability, Slick stated. While not affordable housing developers, the firm saw an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution within its area of influence.

“Every project looks different, but it is our aim to give the same level of attention to innovations that net a positive impact on the communities we serve,” Slick stated.

At Killian Pacific, the firm is working toward a portfolio-wide goal of dedicating 10 percent of its units to voluntary income restriction in all its projects. The firm is exploring solutions to meet this target.

In addition to the affordability component, Killian Pacific awarded 27 percent of its total development construction costs for Ninebark – over $12.6 million – to MWBEs. Plus, 52 percent of all journeymen and apprenticeship hours were done by individuals who identify as women and/or a minority.

This is the second project Killian Pacific has partnered with the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC) to meet the firm’s inclusive contracting goal of at least 25 percent total development construction costs on all developments. Also, inclusive job site culture training was provided quarterly for the general contractor and subcontractor teams during Ninebark’s construction.

Nate McCoy, president and CEO at NAMC-Oregon, said the organization took its time with Killian Pacific being a new member, as the developer joined a little over two years ago.

“Having a chance to meet (Michi Slick), having a chance to sit down and really get to know each other, it was very clear that we had a lot of short-term and long-term visions that were aligned,” McCoy said. “Meeting the rest of the team made it clear that this was transcendent throughout the organization.”

This is the second project NAMC-Oregon has partnered with Killian Pacific. The first was Volta, which was completed last year. On both projects, NAMC acted as an owner’s representative for Killian Pacific and helped Killian Pacific strengthen its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training and efforts to make sure the team has an inclusive environment on the job sites. NAMC had DEI trainers come to the job site, talking with workers to make sure there were not any incidents that need to be addressed. There were no incidents reported for the Volta and Ninebark projects, McCoy said.

“I went through the DEI training with Killian Pacific,” said Raliegh Morrison, journeyman carpenter for Turner Construction for the Volta project. “Coming onto the Volta site, it was refreshing to know that this DEI program … it gave me freedom to know that I wouldn’t be subjected to any racism, and I can report it, and something will be done about it, whereas before nothing was done about it.”

The general contractor on the Ninebark project was Robert & Olson Construction. McCoy said the contractor embraced the DEI training and initiatives that were put forward for the project.

Slick said inclusive contracting has become a standard practice at Killian Pacific. The firm is currently implementing its third iteration of inclusive contracting in a Bend project called The Jackstraw and plans to continue it with other projects, while partnering with NAMC-Oregon.

McCoy said while this inclusive contracting goal is not widespread through development projects, he sees it becoming that way.

“We do have some other key partners we’re working with to start doing the same kind of work we’re doing with Killian,” McCoy said.

NAMC is in talks with real estate firms CBRE, Pacific NW Properties and Melvin Mark, who is looking to develop Broadway Corridor.

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Knife River Corp. has partnered with the Oregon chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors to provide $250,000 in training scholarships for historically underrepresented groups.

The scholarships can be used for individuals to take classes at the Knife River Training Center in Albany. Classes include equipment training, commercial driver’s license training, leadership development and other courses designed to help people build a career in the construction industry.

“Knife River is a people-first construction company, and we are thrilled to partner with our friends at NAMC to provide these opportunities for people who might not otherwise have them,” said Knife River President Brian Gray in a news release. “The construction industry is better off when we have more voices and viewpoints working together. NAMC is an exceptional advocate for minorities and for construction, and we welcome the diversity their outreach will bring.”

The $250,000 in scholarships directed to NAMC-Oregon is part of a $500,000 outreach grant awarded to the Knife River Training Center by Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency. NAMC will help identify prospective scholarship recipients through its member companies, affiliates and outreach efforts to Oregon youth.

“NAMC-Oregon’s motto of Building Bridges and Breaking Barriers continues to be realized with this special partnership being galvanized with Knife River,” Nate McCoy, president and CEO of NAMC-Oregon, said in the release.

Sophorn Cheang, director of Business Oregon, said the scholarships will provide reach into communities that may not otherwise have these types of opportunities.

The Knife River Training Center opened in 2022.

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Advisory committees for the Interstate 5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project struggled to come to consensus Tuesday on a highway cover option for the project, which could cost more than $2 billion.

The virtual meeting was the first joint summit for the advisory committees since Gov. Kate Brown, during an Aug. 3 meeting, endorsed the “hybrid 3” designed by the Oregon Department of Transportation. The design involves stouter highway covers that can support multistory buildings, and narrow interstate shoulders.

Facilitators repeatedly pushed the Historic Albina Advisory Board, meeting with the Executive Steering Committee, to make a recommendation. But only five of 12 members were present during the meeting, and one left for a business obligation before the meeting ended. The remaining members said they did not want to make a recommendation on behalf of the full board.

Some advisory committee members expressed frustration at the slow pace. The Oregon Transportation Commission is expected to make its recommendation in early September, so any advisory committee recommendation must be made before then, if at all.

“There is an option of stuff just not happening because we can’t get a design through the community and supported by the community,” said Nate McCoy, executive director of the National Association of Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter. “I’m just a little tired of these continued conversations where we’re just not moving forward, and I think I would like to move forward as soon as possible.”

Others said they were not ready to support the hybrid 3 option, which would add approximately $450 million in cost compared to the initial design. Hybrid 3 is estimated to cost $1.18 billion to $2.25 billion, up from $715 million to $795 million.

Opposition from the Oregon Trucking Associations could prove to be one obstacle. Jana Jarvis, the group’s executive director, repeatedly questioned the cost and asked who would pay for it.

“That section of freeway at the Rose Quarter is eminently important to us,” she said. “And that section of the freeway doesn’t just belong to the city of Portland, or Multnomah County, or Metro – it impacts the economy of the entire state.”

Jarvis questioned the wisdom of building 4-foot-wide shoulders, saying that wouldn’t be wide enough to clear accidents and allow emergency vehicle access.

The costs of restorative justice in Portland should not be borne by the trucking industry, Jarvis said.

“We’re talking a lot about restorative justice here, but those decisions were made decades ago, and they certainly weren’t made by truckers or passenger vehicle owners,” she said. “So my expectation is the state will feel more of a burden to contribute to some of that cost.”

State and local leaders are discussing pricey items such as relocating Harriet Tubman Middle School, connecting the street grid and providing highway covers that can support buildings.

Some stakeholders said they would not forget about racial justice because I-5 was built through the largely Black Albina neighborhood.

“I would really hope that the displaced community of Albina is considered in everything that we do,” said Estelle Love-Lavespere, a member of the HAAB. “That’s who’s hurting. That’s who is displaced. That’s when our job rates, that’s when our homeownership went down and has not recovered since. So that’s who needs to be considered in our decisions.”

Facilitators said they may convene an emergency meeting of the HAAB to forward a recommendation before the Transportation Commission meets in September.

Megan Channell, an ODOT spokeswoman, said early work packages could be issued in 2023.

“2023 is our first shovels-in-the-ground opportunity,” she said. “That said, we are continuing to evaluate what other things outside of those early work packages might we be able to begin sooner.”

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Transformation of an industry’s culture is a herculean task.

But Andersen Construction CEO Joel Andersen believes the construction industry can become one that rejects racism and discrimination, even if it takes a generation to do so fully. In Portland, that laborious process began with the launch of “Safe from Hate” – a contractor-led initiative developed in response to an incident on an Andersen Construction jobsite in which a rope noose was found hanging conspicuously.

Almost three weeks passed before Andersen Construction executives even became aware of the incident after it was reported. But then Andersen and others were spurred to seriously tackle the racism on jobsites that has been all too prevalent for far too long.

“We realize we have to do something to help try and transform our industry,” Andersen said. “If we keep doing what we’re doing, not only is nothing going to change – there is a good chance it gets worse.”

After the Metropolitan Alliance for Workforce Equity (MAWE), Oregon Tradeswomen, the National Association of Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter (NAMC), the Urban League of Portland and other groups called for the contractor to explain what happened, Andersen realized there was an opportunity to do more than that.

“Everyone was hurt and frustrated, and rightfully so,” Andersen said. “But they were like, ‘Yes, we are absolutely willing to do something to make it better.”

A rapid response

The Safe from Hate campaign quickly attracted a wide variety of groups, including those involved in advocacy, the public sector, trade unions, designers and of course contractors and subcontractors. These groups have continued to meet for several months and reached agreement on four central pillars: 1, zero tolerance for discrimination; 2, education; 3, recruitment; and 4, advancement.

“They documented their commitment as owners, and all of this has really built momentum,” said Kelly Haines, a senior project manager with Worksystems and a MAWE representative. “We met every few weeks from that incident and we coauthored the pledge. From there, we know that’s just words on paper. So, to hold people true to that commitment, that’s what the alliance is meant to be – the implementation and the accountability.”

Then participants realized that such a large group needed to become smaller ones in order to foster more efficient communication. A steering committee was formed to oversee subcommittees comprised of apprentices, public owners, a labor caucus, subcontractors, trade associations, contractors, pre-apprenticeship training programs, public agencies and community-based organizations. The steering committee held its first meeting Feb. 4 and will continue on a monthly basis.

In addition, an executive council comprised of labor representatives will oversee the steering committee. This will also help guide future training and anti-discrimination efforts on the labor side.

“Everyone felt that those most impacted by jobsite culture needed to be leaders in that work,” Haines said. “So, everyone is essentially reporting back to that council. That’s the goal – to be a friendly competition, where everyone comes together and shares what they’re doing and coordinating.”

The Associated General Contractors‘ Oregon-Columbia chapter is serving alongside NAMC Oregon as a shepherd of sorts, providing guidance to help advance the entire process.

“The generals (contractors) … want to do the work individually to their companies, but they are looking at how you pull together as a structure, and that’s why they’re looking to us,” AGC Executive Director Mike Salsgiver said.

But there are no illusions that the work will be easy.

“I think even when you start to really think about what got us here, it was the noose,” said Nate McCoy, executive director of NAMC Oregon. “But what’s a bigger issue is the bias on the jobsites and who should be here and who shouldn’t.”

Building momentum

Jobsite racism affects Latinos as much as any other minority group. Further, they now represent around 30 percent of the construction workforce – a proportion that is growing.

“It’s always there,” said Leanna Petrone, executive director of trade association LatinoBuilt. “Discrimination and hateful acts against our community have been a huge barrier for Latinos.”

Incidents such as the noose are just the tip of the iceberg, Petrone said.

“There’s been a lot through the years, and it’s been this way as long as I can remember,” she said. “My father worked in trades, and he worked in a field, and it’s always been a segregated work environment. The white males tend to stick with their own kind. The women tend to stick with their own. The Latinos, generally men, stick with their own kind. They’re not really included.”

Safe from Hate is by no means the first attempt to address racism in the industry, McCoy said. The difference now is that participation is widespread.

“There have been many decades of conversation around this subject,” he said. “It’s just now the larger GCs are diving into it, which is totally what we want; we want to operate together.”

Haines, Oregon Tradeswomen Executive Director Kelly Kupcak and other industry figures have been working for some time to also implement Rise Up, Green Dot and other programs that aim to eliminate harassment and discrimination on jobsites. Safe from Hate simply builds upon those efforts, said Afton Walsh, community outreach director for Walsh Construction.

“This was in the works even before Safe from Hate,” she said. “So, to say this all started in June is wrong. There has been a lot of groundwork and a lot of work that the community has been doing for a long time.”

This process informed how Safe from Hate took shape, Walsh added.

“We spent months working on the language to make sure it was broad,” she said. “Each company has ways to implement these broader principles. We wanted everyone to join in the journey wherever they are, so it works for nonunion, union, large or small contractors. Everyone can use these as guiding principles to find where they fit in.”

Essentially safety

Kupcak said she and others have been in communication with the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries about harassment on jobsites for some time. She hopes to eventually see enactment of regulations that treat discrimination as a formal health and safety issue enforceable by Oregon Occupational Safety and Health.

“We have shifted the way we approach it as an intervention,” she said. “OSHA convened a task force a couple of years ago about harassment, and we are part of that conversation. Not only do we lose really good people – they love their jobs; they just don’t want to deal with it day after day – but people have died.”

A quarter of a century ago, safety began to become an everyday focus for contractors and clients, Andersen said. It was a slow process, but one aided by acknowledgment that it benefited the entire industry. The effort to eradicate racism and discrimination is no different, he said.

“That was a vernacular that was easily understood; it’s part of the everyday DNA of every jobsite,” he said. “The idea to build upon that with the campaign of Safe from Hate was to say let’s just include that in the definition of safety.”

There is no question that discrimination in construction is fundamentally a matter of health and safety, according to parties involved in the Safe from Hate effort.

“It is absolutely a safety issue,” said Michael Burch, the community relations and outreach representative for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, which represents over 28,000 union carpenters in Oregon, Washington and four other states. “But it goes deeper than that.”

Beneath the surface

A crackdown on graffiti and casual use of racist language is just a start, Burch said. A broader effort must be made to recruit and retain people of color and women in the trades, he added.

“Instead of hiring folks and letting them languish out there, (firms’ leaders) need to be intentional about the leadership paths they put them on,” he said. “There’s a problem with porta potties and lunchrooms, but that’s low-hanging fruit, and we can do that. It’s a problem when you walk onto a construction site and there are 100 workers and they are all white males.”

Changing that is not only the right thing to do, Burch added, but also good for business. The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters implemented positive jobsite culture training some time ago, and Safe from Hate fits neatly within those parameters. The goal is to strengthen the workforce and increase the flow of skilled labor to contractors and jobsites.

“We talked to the apprentices about whether or not they would go back to work tomorrow and asked if they would enjoy it, and most said no, they go for the paycheck,” Burch said. “We spent 18 months developing this curriculum. It’s in the safety class, which all apprentices take, and it’s a training that goes to jobsites.”

The carpenters’ union has even made this training mandatory at its jobsites. Some members have participated multiple times.

“It works for a while, but it’s a marathon, because our work is transient,” Burch said. “They are on the site when the training happens; (then) their work ends and they are off to other areas, and it’s right back to business as usual. So, you have to continue to water those seeds that you planted.”

History shows organized labor is strongest, Burch added, when everyone – “Black, brown, BIPOC folks” – comes together.

“It keeps being pointed out that the industry is weaker because of the divisions, and we’ve done quite a bit of work in that area,” he said.

Optimism for change

In the end, this is only a start to what promises to be a long and potentially frustrating process. But in Portland, at least, a tipping point may have finally been reached.

“We are just beginning, but, man, does it feel exciting to be where we are,” Andersen said. “I say that with this mixture of ‘Here I am, a white guy pumped about what we’re doing.’ But the part that sickens me is, for so many of our peers in the industry and those who have found themselves not welcome, this has been their life’s existence. And we haven’t done enough.”

Open acknowledgment of the problem is encouraging, McCoy said.

“It’s a marathon and not a sprint, and some may not be as equipped or have the systems in place to wrestle with this reality that there is racism and discrimination, big time,” he said. “This is not the first attempt at this, but typically we don’t have the top dogs using their time in the room and saying, ‘It starts with us.’ Now we’ve got that commitment, and it’s a beautiful thing.”

Already, there are signs of progress. Haines noted that several months after the noose was discovered at the Andersen Construction jobsite, a similar incident occurred at a Hoffman Construction jobsite. This time, there was a much more serious response. It was treated like a crime scene, she said, and the person found responsible was removed from the project immediately and disciplined.

“Part of the work is we don’t want to sweep it under the rug, and we found that Hoffman reacted night and day differently than Andersen,” she said. “They shut the site down, called the police, and we have tried to share that example. It was a painter, and the union wrote a letter right away and said they won’t defend members who engaged in this behavior. It was a coordinated effort and transparent.”

That’s why Petrone and others are optimistic.

“I’m not sure it will take 30 years to really shift the way we think of our current jobsite culture here,” she said. “I think it can be done. It might take a Coca-Cola ad, but we’ve already seen awareness and change come in this short period of time.”

After all, it’s about working for a better industry.

“It can’t just take people that look like us,” said Twauna Hennessee, who will soon take over Burch’s position at the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters. “We need everyone not being afraid to speak truth and putting action behind what we hear.”

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Molly Washington has deep experience expanding equity at City Hall and in a major Portland law firm’s construction practice. Now she will put that experience to work directly on behalf of minority-owned contractors.

Washington will join the National Association of Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter as chief operating officer, beginning Jan. 19. She will work with Executive Director Nate McCoy.

Washington previously served for four and a half years, until May 2020, as Portland deputy city attorney, working with commissioners and bureaus on construction and equity issues. She later served as “of counsel” for the construction and real estate group at Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, where she also worked on equity issues.

Washington comes to NAMC-Oregon at a time when racial justice is at the forefront. The construction industry, rarely on the vanguard of social change, is racing to diversify the workforce and eliminate racism in its ranks.

“Certainly we have a long way to go and we should be further along than we are,” she said. “There’s urgency to the work and I think there’s desire to do better.”

Racist incidents have alarmed construction executives, including in May 2020, when a noose was found at the site of the 4th and Montgomery project at Portland State University. Construction executives have launched an effort, Safe From Hate, that seeks to boost diversity and prevent future racist incidents.

NAMC-Oregon is looking to continue growing at the same time as long-planned public projects near fruition. The Interstate 5-Rose Quarter Improvement Project, the Interstate Bridge replacement project, the Burnside Bridge replacement project and other major infrastructure work will have equity targets that include preference policies for qualified minority-owned contractors.

Washington said she’s ready to pursue that work.

“I think you start by building relationships and looking intentionally at each project and the needs of each project and figuring out how to include people of color,” she said.

Construction has benefited from being one of the few industries deemed essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, and NAMC-Oregon is looking to continue to grow along with the industry.

“(NAMC) is an organization whose purpose is to support its membership in access and opportunity,” Washington said. “We have to be looking at what those services are to help meet those needs.”

Washington is closely familiar with the city of Portland’s contracting processes. As deputy city attorney, she focused on construction and equity issues, working regularly with commissioners and the city’s infrastructure bureaus.

“It’s a great background to have,” she said. “I have great relationships with folks over at the city.”

Much of Washington’s work has involved equity analysis, including analyzing rules or programs that are ostensibly neutral, but have an unequal impact on people of color and other marginalized groups.

“It’s about looking at the impacts of the decisions we make, whether it’s a policy decision, a program, a practice,” she said.

Washington, 40, earned a law degree at Lewis & Clark Law School after receiving a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa. She grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, and moved to Portland in 2004.

Washington said she identifies as having Mexican-American, Apache (Ndee) and white heritage.

“Like many people’s identity, it’s complicated,” she said.

Her husband, Rakeem Washington, is director of access and re-entry at Portland Community College.

NAMC-Oregon has been holding weekly listening sessions on Zoom to hear contractors’ stories. Washington said she’s eager to work with contractors on equity and opportunity.

“It’s impactful for me, and I have a lot of passion for it,” she said.

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The consensus became clear among Oregon construction leaders during a recent panel discussion about ending discrimination and racism within the industry. They want to make their industry better, and they recognize that the effort is a marathon and not a sprint.

More than 400 people attended Wednesday’s event via Zoom. It was led by both Nate McCoy, executive director of the National Association of Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter, and Mike Salsgiver, executive director of Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter.

“(We are here to) bring a closed-end to 2020 and a renewed interest in 2021 all premised on ending and eradicating discrimination and racism in the construction industry,” McCoy said.

The discussion focused on four pillars: zero tolerance, workforce education, recruitment, and institutional advancement and mentorship. Inroads must be made in these areas, speakers said. Also, business challenges need to be addressed, and a culture change needs to take place, they said.

Molly Washington, one of the panelists and of counsel at Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, noted that the Black Lives Matter protests might have been a reawakening for some, but for others, it has been their lives and their families’ lives.

“We have to move forward from the idea that ignorance is even an option,” she said. “We have to be informed.”

Throughout the discussion, each panelist mentioned that general ignorance of the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) community has been stifling the industry for too long.

The discussion established that educating the workforce about the history of injustices in the BIPOC community is an important step. Education at all industry levels serves to create a respectful environment and teach what will no longer be tolerated, speakers said.

In May, Andersen Construction executives didn’t learn that a hate crime had occurred on one of the company’s job sites until 20 days later. Only a social media post brought to light the appearance of a noose at the site, CEO Joel Andersen said.

“What it started to register immediately was how ill-prepared we were as an organization and really quite frankly as an industry,” he said. “All of the safety guards put in place in the industry to protect the workers failed. The foreman, out of sheer ignorance, didn’t understand the magnitude of this situation.”

Andersen said the industry is predominantly white, heterosexual men – people who have rarely been marginalized. That has led to a lack of understanding of when issues occur on job sites.

Instead of a zero-tolerance policy being one strike and you’re out, Andersen Construction is looking at a more educational approach. The focus will be on educating workers on what is not tolerated and helping them understand marginalized communities.

One of the ways workers can become educated is through bystander intervention and harassment prevention training. Providing this at every level of the industry will cause a shift away from discrimination, Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. Executive Director Kelly Kupcak said.

“We need bystanders to be front-liners and not sideliners,” McCoy said of workers who observe racism or harassment on job sites.

There has to be a commitment to inclusivity in order to achieve zero tolerance, said Jeff Moreland, president of Raimore Construction. The BIPOC community represents 40 percent of Raimore’s field staff and 70 percent of its management staff. That helps foster an environment of zero tolerance, he said.

One of the first steps to create an inclusive industry, Colas Construction President and CEO Andrew Colas said, is in recruitment. Conversations at that stage go hand in hand with the values a company holds, he said. If companies want to recruit from the BIPOC community, he added, it’s important for them to show people who look like them at different levels.

But to get there, recruitment strategies might need to change. Dave Drinkward, president and CEO of Hoffman Construction, said firms need to do a better job of making the industry more attractive. For a long time, Hoffman Construction’s leader of recruitment was a middle-aged white man, which Drinkward said probably turned away more people than he thought.

There has to be more focus on how people can make a career out of the industry, Drinkward said, noting he’s looking at institutional advancement and mentorship programs.

“I think the best way we learn is to teach and grow together,” he said. “And if we’re not in it to build competitors, then we’re not in it for the right reasons.”

The NAMC and AGC chapters plan to continue conversations on the topic monthly.

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Efforts by the city of Portland to achieve construction equity goals have been undercut by “mismanagement, waste and gamesmanship,” according to a report released Wednesday.

Auditor Mary Hull Caballero found some contractors cheated the system. For example, certified woman-owned firms were observed by city staff without their owners ever present, or with a man – usually the owner’s husband – in the manager’s role. In other cases, white-owned contractors created smaller companies and registered them as “emerging small businesses,” and then subcontracted to themselves. Also, city staff found instances where a certified firm was not doing the actual work, but another contractor’s equipment was on site.

Caballero’s report comes amid a national reckoning on racism. In the building industry, some Black executives such as Andrew Colas of Colas Construction have called on public agencies to do more to support Black-owned firms, saying existing contracting preferences aren’t working.

Caballero, in an interview, said Portland’s Procurement Services never had clear direction and consistent resources from city leaders.

“They set in motion something that was in contradiction from the beginning,” she said. “Council needs to get clear on what it is trying to achieve and how it can do that legally with the level of resources it’s willing to provide to these programs.”

Advocacy groups called on the city to take action to shore up the equity programs.

“The report gives the opportunity to improve the program,” said Nate McCoy, executive director of the National Association of Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter.

The 29-page report focused on a group of programs that were started in 2012 to reduce disparities in contracting and boost opportunities for woman-owned, minority-owned and emerging small businesses. Large public contracts often go to major firms that have been around for decades and are typically led by white owners and executives. The audit found that while the programs succeeded in reducing some disparities, they are “unpopular with many key constituents.”

Widespread dissatisfaction stems from mismanagement and legal constraints that give city officials few opportunities to choose contractors based on race, the audit found.

The audit was especially critical of the city’s Prime Contractor Development Program, which is meant to help small contractors grow. The program “benefited few participants and suffered from mismanagement and waste,” the audit found. “Additionally, white-owned firms won most of the contract dollars awarded via the program. The program’s training and technical assistance programs were generally unsuccessful, disorganized and wasteful.”

The Prime Contractor Development Program’s original focus on minority-owned contractors was diluted, in part because of legal concerns, McCoy said.

“The program was always intended to serve minority contractors,” he said. “Politics and risk and legal authority kinds of things come up, so a program that’s intended to help small minority businesses ends up having to lump everything else in.”

Caballero’s office made 16 recommendations for improving the equity programs. Among them were to take steps to prevent bundling, ensure equal access among contractors to project information, and to centralize and formalize outreach to contractors.

The programs stem from a 2011 disparity study that found stark differences in opportunities for minority contractors.

Then in June 2019, in an audit by Caballero’s office of the Portland Building rehabilitation project, the city was criticized for failing to distribute nearly $1 million in funding set aside for minority contractors.

Advocacy groups joined in the auditor’s finding that there’s a perception certain contractors have an advantage via existing relationships with city staff.

“We call for an end to backroom dealings that undermine the words ‘access’ and ‘equity,’” Professional Business Development Group Executive Director Kenechi Onyeagusi stated in a news release. “We call for public officials and city employees to be unafraid to uphold established processes, abide by its own laws and equity commitments to regain public trust.”

The report focused much of its criticism on the city’s Procurement Services – part of the Office of Management and Finance. Others also bear responsibility for making the programs work, McCoy said.

“There has to be a lot more shared responsibility from our electeds, from bureaus, from (project managers),” he said.

NAMC-Oregon supports the Prime Contractor Development Program, but recognizes changes must be made, McCoy said. The group will issue a full-bodied statement in the coming days, he added.

Caballero said the city now has to make up for lost time.

“Council had good intentions,” she said. “They seemed to want to repair historical inequities and didn’t get the job done. There are consequences for people who are in this industry in terms of wealth creation and advancement and opportunity.”

Caballero will present her findings to the City Council, likely at a Sept. 30 meeting. She expects a “rambunctious conversation” regarding the report and its recommendations, she said.

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One construction-minded class of 15 students had their education interrupted when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Oregon in March. The cohort was only two weeks shy of completing a 12-week pre-apprenticeship program through the Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center when instruction was halted. Now they’re preparing to resume … but from the beginning.

“It was tough shutting down, but they were all very understanding,” program coordinator Charles Manigo said.

Despite almost completing the program the first time around, the students have said they’re willing to go through it again, and some see an advantage in cementing the newly learned skills by repeating lessons, Manigo said.

“Each and every one of them was all for it,” he said. “They’re going to do the whole 12 weeks again, but they’re all in favor of it.”

The resumption of in-person instruction has been postponed for at least two weeks, but POIC officials said they expect to set a firm restart date soon.

The program serves mostly young people ages 17 to 24, and typically people of color. Students learn topics such as introduction to framing, electrical theory and welding.

“Our main focus isn’t really the technicality of the trade, because that’s what they’re going to learn during their apprenticeship,” Manigo said. “We’re gearing them up to deal with that lifestyle.”

Many students have work experience limited to the service industry.

“We try to teach them they can’t bring minimum-wage effort to jobs where people are paying them prevailing wages,” Manigo said.

POIC makes tailored plans for where pre-apprentices will go after the program. Typically, cohorts work on a service project such as construction of a garden shed at an elementary school, a baseball shed for Parkrose High School or renovations of mini-homes for a women’s shelter.

POIC was founded in 1968. The educational nonprofit works out of the Northwest College of Construction, helping at-risk youths and people of color gain Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries-certified pre-apprenticeship training in the trades.

POIC works with trade unions and nonunion apprenticeship opportunities. Contractors including Colas Construction and Andersen Construction have contributed funding and consultation with the program.

With unemployment running high, job training is particularly needed now, said Nate McCoy, executive director of the National Association Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter. It has contributed funding to POIC, and McCoy sits on an advisory committee.

“We’re anxious to see some of those programs get activated again because as we see across the nation, unemployment is growing – not decreasing,” McCoy said. “We’ve got to start getting people back to work as much as we can. I think we need to just continue to keep moving forward.”

The pre-apprenticeship program will resume with a cohort of 15 students. Instead of a classroom, instruction will be moved to the shop, where there’s more room for social distancing.

“We have some fold-up tables that we’re going to set up in the shop, allowing people their own personal space, and we can give them that 6-foot distance,” Manigo said.

The instructor, Torre Sathrum, is a former general contractor. His wife, an emergency room nurse, has provided advice on best practices to use while leading the class during the pandemic.

POIC is also preparing for the possibility of in-person classes needing to be halted a second time.

“We’re taking measures to be able to do distance learning,” Manigo said. “If we do have a shutdown, we can’t ask them twice to start over again.”

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Jeff Moreland has led Raimore Construction through two decades of growth, from a small trucking and flagging outfit to a formidable heavy civil contractor that recently was awarded an approximately $60 million contract – the largest ever in Oregon for a minority-owned contractor – for transit improvements.

Despite his prominence within Portland’s building industry, Moreland – who is Black – still experiences racism on jobsites. Oftentimes, he said, it’s from people who don’t even realize that it’s going on.

“I can walk into a trailer as the owner of Raimore Construction with one of my project managers who’s white, and they talk to him the whole meeting until they realize that I’m the decision maker,” Moreland said. “This is just systemic.”

Robert Camarillo, an ironworker who now serves as executive secretary of the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council, has experienced similar discrimination during his 25 years in the industry.

“Some of us are just used to being invisible,” he said. “It’s not just what is said, but it’s the actions that are hurtful. This is an industry issue that’s plagued not just the construction industry, but all levels of the business, from the developers to the engineers to the architects. All levels.”

Racism in the building industry takes many forms, including the implicit bias experienced by Moreland and Camarillo, discriminatory practices and a lack of opportunities for minority workers and business owners, and symbols of racial violence being placed on jobsites in Portland and other parts of the country.

As the nation comes to a reckoning on racism and discrimination in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, leaders in the local building industry are working to create a dialogue to address causes and potential solutions to racism in construction. Moreland and Camarillo were among multiple panelists who spoke Tuesday during an that drew more than 300 participants. The session was held by the National Association of Minority Contractors‘ Oregon chapter.

The first step to prevent continuing racism and discrimination on jobsites, Moreland said, is to acknowledge that it is a widespread problem, and not try to sweep it under the rug. An open dialogue is necessary, he added, because minorities in the industry often don’t feel safe speaking out for fear of being penalized or ostracized.

“You have to realize that this has been cultivated over a long period of time, and the discriminatory, racist behavior that you see has become normalized,” he said.

Andrew Colas, president of Colas Construction, said the industry needs to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for racist behavior and prioritize enforcement in the same manner that it has for safety. Decades ago, injuries and deaths were considered an acceptable risk to construction work before the industry took a stand and decided to make a change. Now, it’s common to see companies with multiple safety directors.

“I don’t think we’ve ever stopped and assessed how bad it is in regards to racism in this industry, and really decided that we’re going to make a fullhearted effort to change,” Colas said. “You have to put time into it, just like you spend time on making sure safety is important, we have to put time and focus into this.”

Forming bias incident response teams could make victims of jobsite racism more likely to report the abuse, said Willy Myers, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council. Then workers experiencing racial harassment could work directly with the general contractor and would have an intervenor to turn to who is not a direct supervisor or business representative.

“A lot of times there’s a fear of being excluded from the next job or being excluded from a team that’s already built on a jobsite because they’re the person pointing out a problem,” he said.

Further, penalties are needed for people terminated for bias issues, Myers said. Moving them to another jobsite or placing them on the out-of-work list and allowing them back after a short suspension isn’t fixing the problem, he said.

Diversifying the ranks of those working in the industry is crucial, Colas said, calling for labor unions to recruit minorities who are already in their ranks to fill leadership roles on jobsites. Young people of color need to see people who look like them not only in roles as tradespeople, but as foremen and women, estimators, project managers and executives.

“If you can’t see it, you can’t be it,” he said.

Investing in local, minority-owned businesses needs to be a priority for banks and governments that are funding projects, said Alando Simpson, CEO of City of Roses Disposal & Recycling. Using public resources to elevate minority-owned firms and hire more people of color would mean those dollars stay local and benefit the overall community and create a more self-sustaining economy in the Portland-metro area, he said.

Colas agreed, calling on public agencies to help create an atmosphere that is more inclusive and allows everybody to achieve the American Dream, which he argued isn’t as accessible as people believe. Colas Construction is one of the largest Black-owned companies on the West Coast, he said, but their revenues pale in comparison to those of their peers.

“I can tell you five companies that do double our revenues that we’ve been in business 15 years longer than,” he said. “The reality is there are barriers. When you look the way I look, there are barriers. And we need to work to get rid of those.”

To view a video of the forum, visit

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