[Elvis]

Let's start with this...

[Elvis]

[Elvis]

[Elvis]

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... G4.twitter

Stadium financing deal includes 'transformative' minority hiring plans

By David Hunn

ST. LOUIS • The proposal to build a $1 billion riverfront football stadium here includes the deepest and widest minority workforce plan ever assembled on a public project in Missouri, said city officials, union chiefs and a civil rights leader.

The plan, sent to city aldermen Tuesday afternoon, focuses on training new construction workers and helping small businesses grow. It would provide about $1.3 million from the stadium construction budget to recruit, train and even pay some living expenses for minorities and women in pre-apprenticeship programs.

It would set aside $2.1 million to guarantee loans, provide back-office assistance and quickly pay small businesses owned by minorities, women and veterans.

It also would build an electronic database of minority workers, so contractors could hire them for other public jobs after stadium work concluded.

Altogether, such requirements could cost the project more than $3 million in actual expenses.

Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis NAACP chapter, called the plan potentially “transformative.”

“Some of these things ... I have not seen done before,” he said. “They could be game-changers for minority workers.”

Jeff Aboussie, executive secretary of the AFL/CIO Building and Construction Trades Council of St. Louis, said few, if any, national projects have “as many checks and balances” on minority participation requirements.

“This will rebuild neighborhoods,” Aboussie said.

Pruitt cautioned, however, that longstanding goals for minority hiring have not been met.

Late Tuesday, north city Alderman Antonio French called the deal incomplete and “insufficient.” The actual minority participation figure -- 25 percent of the project -- “is nothing new.”

More important, he concluded, the deal has to be part of the stadium financing bill.

Aldermen on Thursday will begin debating the city’s potential commitment to stadium construction. Mayor Francis Slay is backing a state-led plan to publicly finance about $400 million. The city would cover about $145 million. The rest of the public funds would be from the state.

Gov. Jay Nixon’s stadium task force has proposed that seat licenses and owner contributions make up the rest.

Planners hope their plan will persuade NFL owners to block Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s move to Los Angeles.

The task force presents to three key owner committees Wednesday in New York City.

But planners have not yet sold the riverfront proposal here. Several aldermen complained publicly when the Edward Jones Dome authority, a state body, successfully sued St. Louis to prevent a public vote on city financing. They also complained when financing legislation was held up for weeks and then leaked to the media before hitting aldermanic desks.

Slay’s office is counting on the minority participation guidelines to win votes. For some aldermen, it will be the key feature of the arena’s construction.

The task force has been meeting with the city, the NAACP, and major contractors for weeks.

Pruitt and Aboussie highlighted several requirements:

• Creating a centralized tracking database that would allow contractors to more easily find minority workers when needed for other public projects.

• Hiring local residents.

• Providing rent, food and transportation assistance for new construction workers who have entered approved pre-apprenticeship programs that target minorities, felons and recovering drug addicts, among others.

• Considering minority hiring history when awarding stadium construction contracts.

• Third-party monitoring — by a company with no ties to the project or area — of contractors’ adherence to the inclusion plan.

• An oversight committee, to meet monthly and report to local authorities regarding plan goals.

The proposal, if passed, will apply to stadium operations, as well, Pruitt noted, not just construction.

Pruitt said the oversight goals are unusual — but also hard to enforce.

“The worry is, in spite of all this, I haven’t seen anything that talks about penalties or clawback provisions if these goals aren’t met,” he said.

Promises have long been made about minority hiring, Pruitt said.

The city has had an executive order for 25 years that dictates minimum minority participation standards, now set at 25 percent, Pruitt said. Stadium hiring goals will stay the same.

But recent studies show that city projects were employing minority contractors more like 7 percent of the time, and subcontractors about 12 percent of the time, Pruitt said.

In recent years, complaints surfaced about Ballpark Village minority participation and, just this year, work on Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District lines.

“We have all sorts of projects in the city that have set all sorts of goals,” Pruitt said. “And none of them have met them.”

Still, Pruitt said, with this minority inclusion plan, he would wholeheartedly support the stadium proposal.

“Do I want 25 percent of $1 billion to go into the pockets and households of African-Americans in this city?” he asked. “Absolutely. They need it.”

[Elvis]

[Hacksaw]

Sooo is the same Goldman rep going to sell Carson too?

Sounds like StL is bringing every horse they have. Except for that pesky financing plan and the land...

[Elvis]

[OldSchool]

Rams were never part of the presentation. Kronke and Demoff will be in attendance though.

[max]

Balzer is off the wall now.

What does "contrary to speculation" mean?

It's a meaningless statement.

Some random comment was made by someone without knowledge of the subject and Balzer is reporting that it was a false guess, even though anyone who has been following this issue closely knew it was wrong.

What I do find interesting is that no one in the STL media wants to talk about the 70/30 split that the NFL is reportedly unhappy with. Wonder why?

[BuiltRamTough]