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St. Petersburg City Council races to pass hiring ordinance

 
City Council Chairman Charlie Gerdes is leading the fight against state bills.
City Council Chairman Charlie Gerdes is leading the fight against state bills.
Published April 10, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG — A years-long effort to create a city program for poor and hard-to-hire workers has shifted into overdrive as the City Council tries to beat brewing state legislation that would squash mandatory hiring practices.

A council committee unanimously voted Thursday to direct city legal staffers to craft twin ordinances that would require contractors on city projects of more than $10 million to hire a percentage of their workers as apprentices or find jobs for ex-felons and other hard-to-hire job seekers.

Currently, the city has three such projects in the pipeline: the pier, the new police headquarters and the Southwest Water Treatment plant expansion. Together, that's about $150 million in construction work.

The city already has a voluntary incentive program, but it hasn't worked as well as council members would like. The proposed ordinances would be mandatory.

"We need to start investing in our human capital," said council Chairman Charlie Gerdes at the Budget, Finance and Taxation committee meeting.

After much debate, the council settled on requiring contractors to follow a formula that would guarantee 10 percent of the total hours worked on a project to apprentices in one version and an equal percentage to hard-to-hire workers in the other.

The council then split its proposal into two ordinances — one for apprentices, the other for hard-to-hire workers — and directed city legal staffers to have them ready for the April 16 meeting.

Council member Karl Nurse noted that the city has been trying to pass an ordinance since at least 2011.

Meanwhile, in Tallahassee, at least two bills are percolating that could strip the power of local governments to enact local hiring laws. Possible state action rankled several council members.

"I'm starting to wonder why we have city councils anymore," Gerdes said.

It's unclear, though, if state politics threatens local control in this instance. So far, a bill pushed by Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, that would prohibit such ordinances and a similar one from Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Keystone Heights, appear stalled.

Contact Charlie Frago at cfrago@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8459. Follow @CharlieFrago.