Friday, March 27, 2009

Aldermen convince Chicago 2016 to up contracts for minorities, women

Sun-Times:
Dissatisfied black aldermen threatening to derail City Council approval of a community benefits ordinance persuaded Chicago 2016 to up the ante on Olympic construction set-asides — to 30 percent for black contractors and 10 percent for women.
The decision to raise the bar — from an original proposal of 25 percent and 5 percent respectively for minorities and women — was a pragmatic one.

Aldermen Ed Smith (28th) and Isaac Carothers (29th) said they had "at least 14" aldermen who were prepared to vote against the agreement. At the very least, it would have gotten ugly.

"We were going to be as vigilant as we possibly could have been to make sure it didn’t pass," Smith said, shortly before the Finance Committee signed off.

"Why … come in here with the same old 25 and 5? ... We can’t go back and tell our community we didn’t fight for more. We could have been really kicked in our community. We didn’t want that. Why not push for something better?"

Without the last-minute concession, Carothers said, "I doubt it would have passed."

Asked why it took an 11th-hour threat to get Chicago 2016 to cave, Carothers said, "People brought this issue up all during these two months, and they kept saying `no.’ ... Today was the day when the rubber meets the road. A lot of things happen on vote day."

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