The Shameful Disenfranchisement of the Minority-Ethnic Workforce by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights

What will be the City of Minneapolis’ ‘corrective action’ be for over $400 million in non-compliance contracts?”

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak comments frequently on the involvement of Summit Academy OIC as it pertains to the city’s top-of-mind collaboration with local agencies that train able bodied men and women to work on construction contracts with the City of Minneapolis. Mayor Rybak’s “Obama-Talk” does not reflect the man that was a top supporter of the President and his policies of transparency and collaborations.

Understanding that the best social service program is a JOB, why hasn’t the mayor followed through on his promise to assist in building capacity for the minority-ethnic construction trades and adding to the color scheme of the City of Minneapolis construction workforce?

Which also brings into question, where is Summit Academy/H.I.R.E. Minnesota’s Louis King?  (Phone calls to Mr. King have not been returned.)

If Summit Academy OIC’s program has people ready to work, where are they?

Mr. King boasts that Summit has over 100 job ready qualified men and women that are able to work on City of Minneapolis contracts, but yet on a research tour of current construction projects that are active in downtown Minneapolis, IBNN finds the results somewhat disturbing and contradicting to what the mayor’s office is telling the minority-ethnic community.

On Friday (4/24), walking down Second Avenue from Washington Avenue to Marquette Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, IBNN found the workforce consists of a total 74 workers - 73 white males and 1 white female. We found NO people of color.

That’s a problem.

On Friday, April 17, 2009 IBNN received information from the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights (MDCR) Contract Compliance Unit. The information was requested from the unit because with the continued spot-checks of job sites in the City of Minneapolis by IBNN sources and staff, there were no Blacks, Asians, Indians, Hispanic-Latinos or Somali’s on job sites in Minneapolis. Yet the MDCR Compliance Unit says that all City of Minneapolis construction contracts are in compliance.

The information provided by the MDCR Compliance Manager Johnny Burns to IBNN shows that in years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009-y-t-d there was over 945 projects and not one of the projects was or had been on compliance as it pertains to the City of Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights Ordinances and compliance goals, which are 6% women, 11% skilled minorities, and 11% unskilled according to Mr. Burns.

This brings us back to the basic function of the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights and its director Michael Jordan.  Mr. Jordan has consistently denied Black businesses advocacy, contracts and information and has been Mayor Rybak’s “yes man” since day one.

Mr. Jordan’s lackadaisical disposition on important issues like the re-tooling of the MDCR-Investigative Unit and Contract Compliance let’s IBNN know that Mr. Jordan has also outlived his usefulness as director of the MDCR and the community stakeholders have given him a vote of “No Confidence.”

The Minneapolis Department of Civil is suppose to oversee the enforcement of the City’s Civil Rights Ordinances and the Civilian Review Authority Ordinance, including:

• Investigating discriminatory practices against members of protected classes and civilian complaints of police misconduct

• Ensuring for enforcement of employment and purchasing goals for women and minorities on all City-funded construction

• Overseeing Minneapolis Multicultural Services and the American Indian Advocate offices

Of course, with the information supplied be the MDCR Compliance Unit as it pertains to “enforcement of employment goals for women and minorities” we now know that the Unit has not followed procedures and could possibly be in violation of the RICO Act for denying women and minorities the opportunity to actively be a part of the process in city construction contracts.

My next course of action would be to ask, “Where is the Black leadership in Minneapolis?”