Last night’s public hearing drew supporters to talk about the proposed responsible contracting ordinance. It was pretty cool that the State’s Attorney General showed up to lend support and praise for the proposal. The usual political flunkies were in the audience, including Republican Mayor Dick Moccia. From the Hour:
Nearly a dozen people, including other labor leaders, Republican Mayor Richard A. Moccia, his Democratic challenger Walter O. Briggs and state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal lent their support to the proposed “Norwalk Responsible Contractor Ordinance,” which following language tweaks, was sent onward to the full council for action next Tuesday night.
“I’m of the opinion that this is a measure that will create new jobs, new opportunities for people in the city,” said Michael W. Coffey, committee chairman and council president.
Blumenthal described the ordinance as “one of the best drafted of any” he has seen around the state. He lent his personal support and the support of his office.“It is about responsible contracting. It is about giving preference to people who live in this area — not only for their sake, but for the local economy’s benefit,” Blumenthal said.
Under the proposed ordinance, Norwalk would be required to give preference to people in the Norwalk labor market area when hiring workers for larger municipal construction projects.
Contractors and subcontractors have to pay their employees in accordance with the state’s prevailing wage law. The law applies to new construction work totaling or exceeding $400,000, and remodeling, rehabilitation and similar work totaling or exceeding $100,000.
Further, contractors would be required to provide their employees with health insurance and offer them apprenticeship opportunities.
The details of enforcement played out between the two Mayoral candidates with Moccia staking out the practical in stating concerns about emergency road repair.
Moccia said he supports such an ordinance, based on conversations with Mayor Mark D. Boughton of Danbury, which adopted a similar law. Moccia said his only concern is ensuring that the city be able to fix road collapses and other emergencies as they arise..
Moccia suggested that the city paid, in the long run, on its school roofing project several years ago by not having a responsible contractor ordinance.
“If we have to go back and repair roofs on schools that we have done in the past because we had people on that roof that were not qualified … then are we gaining any economic benefit (that) we think we get from the low price?” Moccia asked.
Walter Briggs, whose master plan is 5 years delayed, spoke about the need for “community involvement.”
Briggs, speaking at the hearing, described the ordinance as “excellent.” To make it better, he said, the council should consider adding language setting up an apprentice pool and establishing an appointed board to oversee enforcement of the ordinance.
“What we need to include are strong oversight, enforcement, and community involvement measures, to create good-paying professional jobs for our residents, and to protect taxpayers from work done by contractors with a record of failure,” Briggs said in a statement released earlier Wednesday.
It is interesting to note that Briggs, perhaps in hopes of defining some sort of campaign mojo, thinks that there needs to be community involvement in contract enforcement and creating an apprentice pool. Apparently Briggs doesn’t believe in the separation of powers in a representative democracy. Why stop there? I’m sure there’s a way to work the child hood obesity angle in there somewhere.
source: The Hour, ‘Responsible contractor’ proposal draws support at public hearing by Robert Koch, August 9, 2007
