An ‘Economic Uplift’

May 5, 2010, Column #18, "Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues...,"

by Ron Edwards, a weekly column featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

School district headquarters to be built in North Minneapolis

The lack of Black contractors and workers on the TCF Gopher stadium laid bare the University of Minnesota’s refusal to comply with hiring compliance laws.

We saw hiring refusal laid bare again at the Twins Target Field construction. What will the school district do?

“Refusal to comply” describes the reality of “no attempt.” “Failure to comply” masks the refusal by suggesting attempt was made. Slavery was a refusal to comply with the “inalienable rights” of our founding documents. Jim Crow was a refusal to comply with the Great Emancipation. No hiring compliance is a refusal to provide equal access and equal opportunity.

Will the Minneapolis Special School District One break this pattern of refusal by including Blacks in its $27.5 million headquarters building construction project in North Minneapolis it approved five-to-two last week? Or will the move from its 50-year-old White N.E. Minneapolis headquarters be another slap to North Minneapolis by providing only White economic uplift?

Mortenson, developer/construction manager, and Legacy Development, sub-contractor/developer, both parade as bringers of diverse economic uplift.

Off the parade route they routinely refuse economic uplift to people of color.

Remember the former director of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department’s infamous statement: Minneapolis could meet its minority hiring compliance without hiring a single Black person? How? White women classified as minority combined with submitting false compliance figures.

Mortenson’s March 16, 2010 letter to the Ball Park Authority claims diversity success: Of $314 million in contracts awarded on Target Field, $108 million was to small businesses and to businesses of women and minority firms, of which $38 million was awarded to women business enterprises (WBEs) and minority business enterprises (MBEs). Lynn Littlejohn’s Mortenson letter shows that Calvin Littlejohn’s Tri Construction, located at 1200 West Broadway, received the largest African American contract, a little over $2.1 million.

Hispanic and Native American firms did better. Nordic Construction, which claims to be Hispanic, received $6.3 million.

Mortenson’s March 16, 2010 letter claims 2,038,000 hours logged in by WBEs and MBEs. Really? Then why isn’t there a roster of the workers listing as required by law, their names, residence addresses, and social security numbers?

Mortenson’s parade of claimed compliance is like the parading emperor wearing no clothes, as Mortenson wears no proof by audit, authentication or certification. Now that the Twins have their new toy, Target Field, and all is well in their Camelot, will we again get a “so what” about deteriorated North Minneapolis? We look to the Minneapolis Special School District to model compliance by tearing down this wall of refusal.

We are told the school district’s $27.5 million HQ construction project will be different. At the school board meeting last Wednesday, April 28, 2010, Fifth Ward Council Member Don Samuels talked about the significant “economic uplift” that it would bring the community.

In light of the University and Mortenson’s refusals, now is the time for the school district to outline how it will demonstrate compliance with audit, authentication and certification of the work force utilization commitment in terms of the percentage of African American skilled and unskilled jobs on their project.

One of the most important aspects of getting a disadvantaged community involved in the fruits of success is a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).

I am surprised one has not been proposed.

The Northside Redevelopment Council proposed a CBA for the massive rebuilding program and research facility that was going to come to North Minneapolis — proposed but not done. But the idea kept the community at bay.

To prevent another naked emperor parade, I am proposing the school district require Ms. Littlejohn’s Mortenson Construction company and Legacy Development subcontractor post a surety bond guaranteeing the meeting of these goals equal to the cost of the project. Failure to meet the goals would cause the bonds to be forfeited and placed into a community education trust fund for children of color so they too can enjoy the project’s economic uplift.

A bond to be put up by the NAACP for the Holman Project of McCormick Barron of St. Louis, MO was stipulated by the federal court to protect the developer on that private project. The NAACP didn’t have the money then. For this public project, I propose the developer’s surety bond be posted to protect the community’s “uplift.”

There is history to be made here to allow children to be educated and parents to be employed. What better way to initiate true economic uplift in our time?

Stay tuned.

Ron hosts “Black Focus” on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm. Formerly head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and Urban League, he continues his “watchdog” role for Minneapolis. Order his books at www.BeaconOnTheHill.com; hear his readings and read his solution papers and “web log” at www.The MinneapolisStory.com.

Posted 5-5-10, 11: 20 pm