Top McCormick Place officials have been summoned to Springfield to meet Wednesday with minority legislators who are upset at what they perceive to be a lack of progress on affirmative action programs for the convention center’s $1 billion expansion.
Black and Hispanic support was key to the passage in July 1991 of controversial legislation authorizing new hotel, restaurant and other taxes for the project. In exchange for their votes, minority legislators won what they regarded as significant concessions on affirmative action.
But some lawmakers contend that little headway has been made on the programs, especially those involving training for unskilled workers. In addition, an advisory committee established by the legislature to monitor McCormick Place affirmative action efforts hasn’t been organized.
“They did not vote on this willy-nilly. It was supposed to be a covenant,” said State Sen. Alice Palmer (D-Chicago). “The upshot of this is promises have not been kept.”
Palmer said she may ask the Illinois auditor general to investigate McCormick Place’s compliance with the affirmative action provisions. Meanwhile, State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) said she has introduced a bill to cut off debt-service funding for the expansion if affirmative action goals aren’t met by the end of this year.
James Reilly, chief executive of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which oversees McCormick Place and Navy Pier, said concerns about the affirmative action efforts are unfounded.
“We’re way ahead of any other project like this” on affirmative action, he said. “On an overall basis, we’re way above our goals.”
McCormick Place officials said the advisory panel is in disarray because House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) has refused to make appointments, citing a conflict of interest.
The committee is supposed to have 21 members: seven from the House, appointed by the speaker; seven from the Senate, named by its president; and seven community members appointed by McCormick Place. But so far the only official appointees are four state senators.
Reilly and the authority’s affirmative action officer, Rosalinda “Rusty” Castillo, are scheduled to meet Wednesday with black and Hispanic legislators. The purpose of the meeting was described as “damage control” by State Sen. Donne Trotter (D-Chicago).
State Rep. Lovana Jones (D-Chicago) said she called for the meeting in the wake of reports last month that the authority didn’t reach its affirmative action goal for minority and women bond dealers on the sale of bonds for the expansion.
In that sale, black-, Hispanic- and women-owned bond firms reaped 16.6 percent of the fees. The legislative goal for McCormick Place is 30 percent-25 percent for minority-owned business and 5 percent for women-owned companies.
“By not adhering (to the goal on the bond sale) it’s like a great mirror,” said Jones, whose district includes McCormick Place. “It makes you look at other things.”
Although McCormick Place attempts to reach the 30 percent goal on each of its contracts, officials noted that the expansion bill sets the goal only for the total of all contracts in a year. They noted that, last year, 32 percent of spending on the expansion ($23.6 million) went to minority-owned companies while 8 percent ($6.1 million) went to woman-owned businesses.
The McCormick Place legislation was unusual in that its affirmative action provisions went beyond setting goals for contracts awarded to businesses owned by minorities.
To provide lower-level jobs, the measure authorized the establishment of an “apprenticeship preparedness” training program in cooperation with labor unions and contractors. It also authorized training in the hospitality field.
“The idea of this was to get beneath the middle-income layer and get into jobs for the men walking up and down these streets,” said Palmer.
But Palmer and other legislators said the training programs have been slow to get off the ground and don’t seem poised to accommodate many people. “What they’re doing (with the hospitality program) is a drop in the bucket compared with what the need will be,” said State Sen. Miguel del Valle (D-Chicago).
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Jack Johnson, Reilly’s administrative aide, said the hospitality program will involve on-the-job training for about 50 people a year in hotel jobs above the bottom rung. The classes will start in May and continue indefinitely beyond the construction period.
Johnson said the apprenticeship training program is tied to the start of construction, which is set for this spring.
In addition, McCormick Place has set up two programs not spelled out in the legislation that have provided a small number of jobs, Reilly said. Under one, people in “economic distress” are hired as day laborers at the convention center; the other trains minority construction workers. Contractors have agreed to set aside about 10 percent of the construction jobs for these trainees.
Minority legislators say the advisory panel was supposed to be a watchdog. Instead, “the committee has been non-functional,” said del Valle.
Although the expansion bill was approved in July 1991, it didn’t go into effect until the next July.
Nonetheless, outgoing Senate President Philip Rock made his seven appointments to the advisory committee in January 1992. Since then, two of the appointees have left the legislature and a third has requested to be removed from the committee.
In the House, Madigan refused to make appointments because he had done legal work for developer Richard Stein, a key figure in Mc3D, the team of firms that is carrying out the expansion project.
Last year McCormick Place had a bill introduced to allow the authority to name House members to the panel. It cleared the legislature, but Gov. Jim Edgar vetoed it on the grounds that both houses of the General Assembly should have the same appointment process.
Since then, McCormick Place unofficially named several House members to the committee, including Jones, who is co-chairwoman along with State Sen. Margaret Smith (D-Chicago).
The panel has held one meeting, an organizational gathering last summer attended by seven legislators. Another meeting is scheduled for Friday.
Next Tuesday the authority is to appoint the seven community members to the committee. Reilly said the community appointments were delayed until suggestions could be received from legislators on the committee.