Saturday, January 23, 1999
County gets mixed review on minority hiring for stadium
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The city of Cincinnati has finished its investigation of Hamilton County's efforts to include minority firms in the football stadium project, and the findings are mixed.
A St. Louis consultant hired by the city said the county's efforts to increase minority business participation came too late to be extensively effective, but most of the report validates the county's efforts.
City Councilman Charlie Winburn, one of the council members who requested the investigation, said he thinks the report shows the county is “halfway there, and that's good news.”
“There's no fight here,” he said. “Let's not fight, let's move on.”
Councilman Tyrone Yates, who also supported the investigation, said the city should put the investigation in the hands of county officials and let them see their strengths and weaknesses.
“It does demonstrate that after a lot of hard work and a great deal of persuasion and some pressure that the county is meeting some of its obligations,” Mr. Yates said. “We certainly are not there yet.”
County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said county officials are pleased that the city investigation found that the county is trying to include more businesses owned by women and minorities.
“We don't ever expect to get a lot of credit for what we're doing in this area,” he said. “I think the best we can hope for is the lack of aggressive outrage from the city, and we will view that as an indication our credibility is intact.”
In October, Mayor Roxanne Qualls and Councilman Todd Portune suggested pursuing a lawsuit against the county for failing to live up to its promises in a 1995 agreement with the city.
In that agreement, the county had approved a goal to award 15 percent of all stadium construction contracts to firms owned by women and minorities. The county's latest figures show about 7 percent of the stadium contracts have gone to women- and minority-owned firms.
While the city's investigation confirmed that the county has fallen far short of the goal, it also detailed “substantial” efforts the county has made to involve companies owned by women and minorities.
Mr. Winburn and Mr. Yates said Friday that they don't think the city will pursue a lawsuit. Neither Ms. Qualls nor Mr. Portune could be reached to comment.
The most critical finding was that the county's outreach efforts came too late in the stadium planning process to be truly effective.
Mr. Bedinghaus said part of the problem is that there aren't as many minority-owned businesses in Cincinnati as there are in other parts of the country.
“If we had started six months earlier, that really wouldn't have changed that,” Mr. Bedinghaus said.
The investigation found the county is exceeding its minority work-force goals. Under the 1995 agreement, the county promised to try to employee minorities for no less than the number of hours proportionally equal to their representation among Hamilton County residents within the construction crafts.
The county reports having a 22 percent minority work force, based on the total number of hours worked.
The city confirmed a 16.6 percent minority work force, and the investigation cited 1990 Census data showing that minorities account for 12.6 percent of county residents working in construction trades.
THE CITY'S FINDINGS
• The county is paying prevailing wages to workers on the project.
• The county did not establish a “weighted three-tiered bid program” to give local companies first preference in the project. But Hamilton County and Southwest Ohio companies have won 76 percent of the work.
• The county conducted “substantial outreach and recruitment activities” for the inclusion of women- and minority-owned businesses, but the county's outreach program “fell considerably short of a well-designed and effective outreach program due in part of untimely outreach and recruitment efforts.”
• The county's reported rate of 7 percent participation by women- and minority-owned firms is below the goal of 15 percent.
• An office was established to assist minority and women business enterprises.
• There were meetings involving the county, the Greater Cincinnati Building Trades Council, the NAACP and the Baptist Ministers Conference of Greater Cincinnati. The Baptist Ministers Conference, some community councils and the Building Trades Council reached an accord to increase minority participation in the trades without the county.
• Based on work-force hours, the county has a minority stadium work force higher than the percentage of minorities who work in construction trades in Hamilton County, based on 1990 Census data.
Source: City of Cincinnati, report by David Chapman, assistant to the Cincinnati city manager
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