YOUNGSTOWN Funds get minority firm on job

The school board is considering a pact to monitor minority hiring.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The $45,000 that city council has moved into a fund to help minority and female businesses means the Youngstown firm Underwood & amp; Associates will help build the new Harding and Taft elementary schools.
It's not enough, however, to bring more minority companies into the overall $163.5 million city schools construction project, said William M. Carter, executive director of the Youngstown Area Development Corp.
Carter said $300,000 is needed to make loans to minority contractors so they can provide performance bonds. Such bonds are equal to the amount of a contract to guarantee a company's performance; they are returned when the job is complete. Minority and female companies generally rely on the city for such bonds.
Fund cut short
But federal Community Development Block Grants to the city came in about $1 million lower than expected, meaning the minority development fund was cut short, Carter said.
The $45,000 transferred to the fund Monday came from federal monies in the Community Development Agency fund.
Carter said an amendment to the fair-housing ordinance means city officials may be able to shuffle another $45,000 into the minority business program.
"Right now, what we're trying to do is rob Peter to pay Paul," said Carter, who also heads the city's human relations commission, which oversees the minority program.
In recent months, city council has discussed redirecting up to $600,000 to the minority business program, from various federally funded programs.
Underwood & amp; Associates will work as a subcontractor under Johnson Controls Inc., the group that will handle heating and cooling system controls in all the new and renovated buildings.
Getting minority companies involved in the Youngstown construction project could mean that they'll be viable options for similar school construction programs in Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo, said Al Curry, the school district's equal-employment opportunity contract compliance officer for the construction project.
Paying for project
Eighty percent of the school construction project is funded by a grant from the Ohio School Facilities Commission. The rest is funded through a 4.4-mill property tax issue that was passed in November 1999. Plans are to build six new schools and renovate 10 buildings.
All contractors involved in the project are required to make a good-faith effort to employ at least 20 percent minorities, 20 percent females and 50 percent district residents for school construction projects.
Curry said about 1,200 minorities have been tested in math, reading and writing skills to qualify as laborers; 400 have passed and are ready to work. Those who don't pass are referred to adult education courses and can retake the test.
Curry said he will refer names of those who pass to the contractors. Workers also are being encouraged to apply for apprenticeship programs in various trades.
The minority workers will be added to construction teams incrementally, Curry said.
"They are anxious to go to work, to take care of their families and to show their kids and grandkids over the years that they helped build the schools," he said.
Seeking 1-year contract
In another issue, Curry has asked the board to enter a one-year contract with the Youngstown Area Urban League to oversee a collaborative group that would hire and train monitors to determine if contractors are meeting the minority-hiring goals. Part-time monitors would come from the League as well as other minority-oriented groups such as the Organizacion Civica y Cultural Hispana Americana, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Associated Neighborhood Centers.
Groups would be paid quarterly based on the projects and number of monitors, Curry said. He said cost has not been determined as a contract is negotiated. A proposal that was presented to the board in May suggested an hourly rate of $27 -- of which 50 percent would provide wages and the rest payroll taxes, supplies and transportation -- not to exceed $47,000.