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(2/10/10): Cincinnati School Board Not Negotiating in Good Faith |
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"It is becoming more and more evident that School Board Members are either financially incompetent or just don't care about African Americans competing for contracts with a level playing field. Our institutions have never asked for a hand out. We have demanded financial records and a clear set of rules that are transparent and fair so our contractors can compete. February 19, 2010 at 5:00 pm is the deadline," Smitherman says.
February 10, 2010 Media Release Cincinnati NAACP . Members Please Read the Entire Press Release and Forward . The Cincinnati NAACP, the Baptist Ministers Conference, and many African-American contractors and laborers attended the Cincinnati Public School (CPS) Board meeting on Monday, February 8, 2010. The organizations are very concerned about how the School Board, as a whole, has excluded African-American contractors which is reflected in the less than 2% contracts awarded to African-Americans. Capacity is not an issue. The issue is the procedures, legal processes and lack of opportunity that are in place to intentionally exclude African-Americans. One of the practices that has been raised is the decentralized process of "lowest bid" for work with no oversight by the Board and the Board's generous allowance of change orders. . For example, several sub-contractors bid on drywall work for Parham Elementary. XYZ Drywall & Plaster sub-contractor is awarded the job because they submitted the lowest bid. However, there is no transparency in the lowest bid process once bids are submitted. The bids are shopped in the "network". Therefore, XYZ Drywall & Plaster sub-contractor submits the lowest bid because they were notified of "how low to go". The other companies that have submitted bids are never notified nor are the bids revealed to the public once an award decision is made. XYZ Drywall & Plaster sub-contractor knows that they cannot do the work at the price that they quoted in the bid so they submit a Change Order. The Change Order is an increase in cost from the initial lowest bid quote. The School Board has approved the Change Orders 100% of the time which balloons cost and plays into the exclusion of the African-American contractor. "The School Board ends up rewarding the majority company by approving the Change Order," says Cincinnati NAACP President, Christopher Smitherman. . This scenario has been shared with the School Board continuously. Yet, on Monday, the Board approved all Change Order, millions of dollars, without one question, right in front of many African-American contractors at the meeting. The Cincinnati NAACP and the Baptist Ministers Conference views Monday's votes by the Cincinnati School Board as disingenuous and not negotiating in good faith. Each Change Order was approved. The Cincinnati NAACP and Baptist Ministers Conference will send a public information request asking for all Change Orders over the last five years. "It is becoming more and more evident that School Board Members are either financially incompetent or just don't care about African Americans competing for contracts with a level playing field. Our institutions have never asked for a hand out. We have demanded financial records and a clear set of rules that are transparent and fair so our contractors can compete. February 19, 2010 at 5:00 pm is the deadline," Smitherman says. |