City Contracts

In a unanimous vote, the City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would require businesses getting large city contracts or financial support to hire 51 percent of new workers from Baltimore. "My council colleagues believe this is a fair thing to do," Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, the bill's lead sponsor, said after the vote. "We have an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. We need to get Baltimore City to work. There are qualified people in this city that can do these jobs.

In a unanimous vote, the City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would require businesses getting large city contracts or financial support to hire 51 percent of new workers from Baltimore. "My council colleagues believe this is a fair thing to do," Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, the bill's lead sponsor, said after the vote. "We have an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. We need to get Baltimore City to work. There are qualified people in this city that can do these jobs.

Any business that gets a city contract or major financial help from City Hall could be required to hire 51 percent of new workers from within the city limits or face a criminal sanction. Those are the terms of a new bill proposed by City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, who believes such legislation is needed to reduce what he calls Baltimore's "stubbornly high unemployment rate. " Young introduced the "local hiring mandate" legislation Monday night to the City Council.

Baltimore City Solicitor George Nilson appears to have shot down a proposal to require businesses that receive large city contracts or tax breaks from City Hall to hire local residents for 51 percent of new jobs they create. Last week, Mr. Nilson said the bill could violate a section of the U.S. Constitution barring discrimination against job-seekers based on where they live. But the bill's sponsor, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, insists the measure is needed to address the city's stubbornly high unemployment rate.

When it was announced that yet another group would be taking on management of the Baltimore Grand Prix, one of the company's funders stepped into the spotlight. Columbia-based financier J.P. Grant III has stayed out of the public eye since the storm of a no-bid city schools contract blew over in 2000. But all the while, his company Grant Capital Management was accumulating city contracts. In 2003, the city granted his company a "master lease," an agreement that speeds up the contracting process, but also made it more difficult for The Sun to track.

Nearly three years after Mayor Martin O'Malley hired him to head up an ambitious initiative to increase business opportunities for minorities, the head of the city's minority business development office has stepped down. Owen Tonkins' last day in the $90,000-a-year Cabinet post was yesterday. Tonkins was out of the office and didn't return calls to his home, but Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said Tonkins left to "pursue other interests." He was hired to oversee a plan crafted by O'Malley and several prominent black politicians, including then- House Appropriations Chairman Howard P. Rawlings, they hoped would reverse a business climate they said had bypassed blacks.

Baltimore City school bus contractors buckled under pressure from city leaders yesterday and agreed to stop paying their employees 50 cents an hour less than city contracts mandate.But the two dozen or so contractors are balking at giving several months' back pay and paying fines, saying they simply don't have the cash."This is going to be a great financial hardship," said Maxine Hopkins, owner of M. R. Hopkins bus company.Since July, the bus contractors have been paying hundreds of school bus aides $6.10 an hour, even though the city, which hired the contractors to transport students, stipulated that they had to pay $6.60 an hour.

Mayor Martin O'Malley told city agencies yesterday that he wants to award 35 percent of all contracts to minority and women-owned businesses, hoping to resuscitate earlier goals nullified by a federal judge in December. O'Malley set the new minority participation goal in an executive order. Although that order is nonbinding, the mayor said he intends to use the powers granted him under the City Charter to push the minority participation goal when contracts come before the Board of Estimates.

A bidding war over a contract to supply light bulbs to local governments has escalated into a battle over the implementation of one of Mayor Martin O'Malley's priorities: providing minority-owned businesses the chance to compete for city contracts. The Board of Estimates faced accusations of two types of discrimination yesterday as it rejected bids on a lighting-fixtures contract worth nearly $1 million to start the process over with a newly written proposal that will better protect the city's interests.

Any business that gets lucrative financial help from City Hall would be required to hire 51 percent of its workers from within the city limits or it could face a criminal sanction. Those are the terms of a new bill proposed by City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, who believes such legislation is needed to reduce what he calls Baltimore's "stubbornly high unemployment rate. " Young's "local hiring mandate" legislation will be introduced Monday before the City Council, he said.

Any business that gets a city contract or major financial help from City Hall could be required to hire 51 percent of new workers from within the city limits or face a criminal sanction. Those are the terms of a new bill proposed by City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, who believes such legislation is needed to reduce what he calls Baltimore's "stubbornly high unemployment rate. " Young introduced the "local hiring mandate" legislation Monday night to the City Council.

Any business that gets lucrative financial help from City Hall would be required to hire 51 percent of its workers from within the city limits or it could face a criminal sanction. Those are the terms of a new bill proposed by City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, who believes such legislation is needed to reduce what he calls Baltimore's "stubbornly high unemployment rate. " Young's "local hiring mandate" legislation will be introduced Monday before the City Council, he said.

Baltimore officials awarded $1.8 million in contracts for the city's lucrative towing business on Wednesday, ending a practice that had allowed a small circle of companies to bypass the city's competitive bidding system for decades. City Councilman Robert W. Curran said the contracts approved Wednesday by the Board of Estimates mean some towing companies "will be losing significant percentages of their tows and conducting tows at reduced rates," a benefit for the city and its taxpayers.

A frequent critic of Baltimore's contract bidding process filed a lawsuit Wednesday contending that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and other members of the Board of Estimates have acted "discriminatorily and outright corruptly" by awarding contracts to large firms without considering minority contractors. The 185-page civil lawsuit brought by Arnold Jolivet, managing director of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association Inc., seeks damages for what it calls "flagrantly unlawful, willful and unconscionable conduct" by city officials.

When it was announced that yet another group would be taking on management of the Baltimore Grand Prix, one of the company's funders stepped into the spotlight. Columbia-based financier J.P. Grant III has stayed out of the public eye since the storm of a no-bid city schools contract blew over in 2000. But all the while, his company Grant Capital Management was accumulating city contracts. In 2003, the city granted his company a "master lease," an agreement that speeds up the contracting process, but also made it more difficult for The Sun to track.

Tickets for the second Baltimore Grand Prix should be on sale by the end of the month, the latest group to organize the race announced Wednesday. Race On, a team led by two local investors that has partnered with racing champ Michael Andretti's sports marketing firm, also finalized sanctioning agreements with the IndyCar Series and American Le Mans Series for the Labor Day weekend festival, organizers said Wednesday. Investors J.P. Grant III, president of Grant Capital Management, and Greg O'Neill, vice president of BMW Construction, spoke of their plans for the race at a news conference at the city-owned Hilton Baltimore hotel, hours after the city's spending board approved the contract with Race On. "I'm honored to take on this important opportunity in the city we both love," Grant said.

City contracts to minorities and women nearly doubled in four years, Mayor Martin O'Malley announced yesterday. The value of the awards jumped from $44.7 million in 2000 to $83.1 million in 2004, the mayor said at a City Hall news conference, surrounded by minority and female business owners who benefited from the city's efforts. "It's good to say that you're in favor of minority business development," O'Malley said. "But our city can actually prove every year the strides we are making."

Here's why the recently approved Baltimore City teachers' union contract reminds me of Texas. My daughter's college roommate is from Fort Worth. With the exception of the rodeo ring at Billy Bob's Texas honky tonk (which you should visit before you die), Fort Worth is home to about as many cows, and as many real cowboys, as you'll likely find residing or working in downtown Silver Spring. But you wouldn't know it by the number of Stetsons and hand-tooled, pointy-toed cowboy boots on parade at either Billy Bob's on a Saturday night or in the downtown Fort Worth office district during lunch.