This didn't get talked about much during the campaign for the bond issue, but City Manager Doug Russell made an interesting point — the school bond issue will inject some economic activity into Ark City. You wouldn't want to push that point during a campaign because that is not the purpose of improving schools. But it is a reality.
I guess we'll see if contracters use local businesses and hire local workers to heighten the economic impact.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
I know some want to run from the race issue but......
It would be nice if the unemployed ethnic candidates could get some work from all the construction going on with the approved school project.
One of the criticisms I heard often during the levee project was no African Americans working on it. There were a number of Latino or Hispanic workers. Same was true of the Streetscape project.
However, in a society where taxes are levied on all, with the only definer being assets, all people pay the bill and therefore, all people ought to be candidates for employment on the projects.
USD 470 does not have an EEO officer. They do include a disclaimer on their employment postings but no one is around to enforce it or measure compliance.
That may be why they only have two African American certified teachers on the payroll also.
Well you shouldn't need a degree to operate a jackhammer or spackle the ceilings. Maybe they will monitor the contractors hiring practices.
It might not take a degree, but any job requires a work ethic, and experience. Then the applicant must also be willing to work for the wages available.
The hispanic culture is more comfortable with manual labor positions. They start working when they are young and gain experience in various forms of manual labor.
I have to wonder if the cultural or ethnic disparity is based on employer selection or applicants interested in that kind of work.
Race is only an issue to people who MAKE it an issue.
I don't drive by a worksite and count the number of white people working there.
Mr., Ms. or Mrs. Anonymous,
you have said tha enough times that I believe it now. I wish I had met oyu eariler i life. And, I wish you had run for President of the United States on that platform.
Our nation needs the kind of healing that your words could bring. Thank you for bringing me to the light.
I don't watch an NBA game, and then come on here and complain about all the rich black players not letting any white men play.
Does that mean you think there weren't African Americans working on the levee or Streetscape because they wouldn't let them? But they "let" the hispanics?Seriously?
Race no longer matters!!!!!
Next can we retire the illicit drug and teen pregnancy problems?
The old folks used the phrase, "Some people will argue with a stop sign."
It is quite obvious that Mr. Anonymous holds deeply to the belief that race is a manufactured issue these days.
However, even when I offer a conciliatory response, I still read spatterings of argument. You do not need to argue with me.
I encourage you to take your show on the road and sell it to the nation.
You can start with an open letter to those despicable NBA players then move on to the athletes of other professional sports.
You have declared the race matters over and resolved. Let's get back to discussion (it's highlighted in orange at the top of the page!) of whether there are any economic upsides to the bond projects.
It does sound like there may be a handsome salary birthed out of the project if they pursue a project director.
It might be interesting to see how much employment impact this has, being as the lament from existing employers in skill worker deficiency. Construction may not be glamorous but it is an exacting science.
While retail and food service spending is a fringe, direct wages/salaries from the funded projects are the needed benefit. Our Vo Tech might have a catalog of qualified and available workers.
One of the less desirable scenarios is to have commuting construction workers carrying the payroll back to other communities. The USD (actually contractors and subs) has to balance moving the project forward in a timely manner versus the need to employ, and train if necessary, local candidates.
This whole argument is naive.
It is really not about black vs. white.
If there is any racial discrimination in local hiring, it should be brought to light and stamped out.
Professional construction crews don't just come into town and say "hey! let's hire some unemployed black people (or white people or hispanics, asians or whatever) and build us a school.
The ones I've seen, you have to apply for a job, and unless you have a track record, work for almost no money as a worm's helper, graduate up to a worm and then after establishing your strength and abilities (and sometimes certifications) you eventually become a well paid skilled craftsman. Even hispanic day laborers have to provide references.
The people in Ark City who are qualified to work in construction as skilled laborers are probably employed doing something now or retired.
Construction crews from out of town will probably bring their own people, just because they don't want to waste time training newbies who will leave the crew when the job is over. It has nothing to do with race.
The construction crews that have local hiring requirements generally relegate the local hires to do-nothing jobs while the seasoned hands do all the work.
There may be temporary openings, and I would encourage anyone to apply if they exist.
It's easy for someone outside the construction business to say that a company should just hire the local unemployed (and make sure you get plenty of blacks) and build a school, but that completely ignores the reality of how construction companies work.
Why are there able-bodied unemployed people in Ark City, black or white anyway? There are plenty of jobs.
So do you have any thoughts on how the bond project might be an enhancement to the local economy or are you only an expert on race relations? You would need to diversify your expertivity since we have declared that race does not matter. Not much market for the profound thoughts on how race influences job opportunity. It does not. Race does not matter.
Now, getting back to how the $36mm project might benefit the local economy; it appears that the expertise being sought as a project manager might result in recruitment of a non-local person and I would suppose that they might command a hefty salary.
Perhaps, along with the demonstration of cost savings, the district might want to know if that person has a capacity for trapping a higher percentage of the project dollars within the local community.
There has to be a way that our millions of tax dollars can be turned into local payroll. When one looks at the system of parochial schools across the country, we see an exemplary model of recycling dollars.
They use funds to build schools, colleges and universities. They use those institutions to educate their own and their own spend their money for that education.
Then those highly educated people provide professional services and donate of their earnings to support the institution. It moved a people from poverty to prosperity.
Our public schools are a bit more complex but there has to be a learning from that model that can serve as a basis for making this project pay off in our local economy.
Charles, you confuse me with the "race relation" guy. I'm not him, and I don't know much about race relations, but I do know how construction works.
There will be an increase in motel and food services and overall retail because there will be new people in town.
The best way to improve the economic benefits to Ark City is to make sure the project management is hard-nosed and strict, that the contractors are prepared, professional and efficient, that there is no wasted time and money and that the quality of work is good.
It is far better to hire someone from out of town with hard credentials who can bring the job through efficiently than to hire someone less experienced and less qualified who is local in an attempt to "keep the money local".
This is a big project and there may be many times that project management will have to go toe-to-toe and harshly demand performance and performance bond compliance from reluctant contractors. Ark City needs the kind of project management that "doesn't take prisoners" to make sure we get the most from our investment.
I've seen too many local projects, the bypass being one of them, where the project management was missing in action and contractors got away with inconceivable waste and inefficiency. We don't need that with the school project
Maybe I'm on the wrong thread here, but I don't see how this project has anything at all to do with race.
Corporate Social Responsibility.
It's a unit I took while earning my BS in Org. Leadership and HR Mgmnt.
An employer recognizes the duty to give something back to a community where (s)he derives income. The employer understands the demographics of his market and seeks to make some notable impact AT LEAST proportional to the demographic distribution.
Expanding on that theme: An employer understands that their labor market might be increased by demonstrating a commitment to targeting historically underutilized populations and "protected class" citizens.
The term "protected class" comes from congressionally enacted legislation in reference to certain races and females who documentably have been historically denied economic opportunity (JOBS) based on discriminatory practices of employers.
More applicable in such cases where public funds (TAXES) are used to pay for a project because such taxes are levied uniformly based on income or other basis for determining a tax without regard to race, gender, national origin or (more recently) sexual orientation.
In other words, since the same hypothetical $35 will be paid by all property owners without regard to race, similar opportunity to benefit financially ought to exist. This applies to the bid letting process and to selection or de-selection of employees to work on such projects.
Other than that, race has absolutely nothing to do with any of this discussion.
However, I do appreciate being enlightened on the subtleties of how projects of this magnitude work. Since I only work for an international energy giant and have only been involved in a half dozen multi-billion dollar programs, I am somewhat shielded from the process of engineering, design, forecasting, project management, scale up, cost overrun, ASME standards, OSHA regs, EPA regs, etc. etc. etc.
Post a Comment